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LADIES’ BOTANY. 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 


http://www.archive.org/details/ladiesbotanyofpr02lind 


LADIES BOTANY: 


OR 


A FAMILIAR INTRODUCTION 


To the Study 


OF THE 


NATURAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY. 


BY 
JOHN LINDLEY, Pa.D. F.RS. 


ETC. ETC. ETC. 


PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 


I boast no song in magic wonders rife, 

But yet, oh Nature! is there nought to prize, 

Familiar in thy bosom scenes of life? 

And dwells in daylight truth’s salubrious skies, 

No form with which the soul may sympathize? 
CAMPBELL. 


IN TWO VOLUMES.—VOL. IT. 


FIFTH EDITION. 


LONDON: 
JAMES RIDGWAY AND SONS, PICCADILLY. 


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Locke has two sentences which, with little altera- 
tion, express in the best possible manner what I 
would write upon this occasion. 

Nature, he says, commonly lodges her treasure 
and jewels in rocky ground. If the matter be knotty, 
and the sense lies deep, the mind must stop and buckle 
to it, and stick upon it with labour and thought, and 
close contemplation, and not leave it until it has mas- 
tered the difficulty and got possession of truth. And 
again— 

God has made the organic world harmonious and 
~ beautiful without us ; but it will never come into our 
» heads all at once ; we must bring it home piece-meal, 

and then set it up by our own industry, or else we 


shall have nothing but darkness and a chaos within, 


whatever order and light there be in things without 
us. 

The reader will, I am sure, forgive me if I intro- 
duce the second volume of this little work without 


further preface. 


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TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


LETTER XXVI. 
Preliminary—The Magnolia Tribe—The Barberry Tribe 

LETTER XXVII. 
Pistil—The Gooseberry Tribe—The Vine Tribe 

LETTER XXVIII. 
The Pittosporum Tribe—The Milkwort Tribe 

LETTER XXIX. 
The Mignonette Tribe—Disk—The Caper Tribe 

LETTER XXX. 
The Cactus Tribe—The Gourd Tribe 


LETTER XXXI. 


The Begonia Tribe—The Fig-marigold Tribe—Hygrometrical Phenomena 
connected with the dispersion of Seeds 


LETTER XXXII. 
The Lythrum Tribe— The Rock-rose Tribe—Mode in which the contents of 


the Pollen-grains are conveyed to the Ovule 

LETTER XXXIII. 

The Tamarisk Tribe—The Sundew Tribe—Hairs of Plants 
LETTER XXXIV. 

Venus’ Fly-trap—Aanatomical Structure of Leaves 
LETTER XXXV. 

The Horse-chesnut Tribe—The Walnut Tribe 
LETTER XXXVI. 


The Houseleek Tribe—Purification of the Air by Plants—The Saxifrage Tribe 


LETTER XXXVII. 


The Buck-thorn Tribe—Spines— The Spurge Tribe 


16 


26 


78 


37 


98 


106 


118 


vill TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


LETTER XXXVIII. Page 
The Flax Tribe—Abortions—Linen—The Rue Tribe ; : 129 


LETTER XXXIX. 
The Buckwheat Tribe—The Goosefoot Tribe : : : 140 
LETTER XL. 

The Mezereum Tribe—The Cinnamon Tribe . A - 149 
LETTER XLI. 

The Primrose Tribe—The Epaecris Tribe. 2 - d 157 
LETTER XLII. 

The Greek Valerian Tribe—The Trumpet-flower Tribe . 3 164 
LETTER XLIIL 

The Madder Tribe—The Scabious Tribe : : “ : 171 
LETTER XLIV. 

The Jasmine Tribe—The Asclepias Tribe : . z 179 
LETTER XLV. 

The Birthwort Tribe—The Arum Tribe. : é - 188 
LETTER XLVI. | 

Pitcher-plants— Vegetable Anatomy c : - 196 
LETTER XLVII. 

The Water Plantain Tribe—The Water Lily Tribe. 3 d 206 

LETTER XLVIIL. 

The Ripe Fruit of a Mango : : ; : ) 214 

LETTER XLIX. 


A Systematic Arrangement of Plants, according to their Natural Relations, 


or sums of Resemblance é : 5 “ : 219 


LETTER L. 


An Artificial Method of discovering with certainty the Natural Order to which 
a given Plant belongs - ‘ 544 . , 234 


APPENDIX 5 } ‘ - rp 3 958 


" LIBRARY 
Mid «.20F THE 
“UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 


ae. Magnolia Pes XXVI. 1. 


2 
Common Lark e WY. 


LETTERS ON BOTANY. 


LETTER XXVI. 


PRELIMINARY—THE MAGNOLIA TRIBE—THE 
BARBERRY TRIBE. 


OOPPLI ORDO OLD LE CLLL I OLD LICL ODI DLE LI OLE LE ODL LD 


(Plate X XVI.) 


were. eres erececeres 


Ar the close of our Botanical correspondence two 
years ago, I had given you an unfinished, but rather 
extensive, sketch, of the structure and classification of 
a considerable number of interesting plants; and I 
then supposed that, for all elementary purposes, I had 
already occupied so much of your time as to have 
run the risk of wearying rather than amusing you. 

The sketch, indeed, was far from comprehending all 
the beautiful objects by which the admiration of a 
lover of flowers is excited, nor did it include a 
complete view of even the most common species that 
are yielded by our own woods and fields and hills ; 
but it furnished you with a plan of study, it taught 
you the right manner of exercising your powers of 
observation, it explained many of the more important 
facts connected with the organization of the Vegetable 
World, and it was calculated to place you in a position 
. VOL. Il. B 


‘ 


2 LETTER XXVI. 


from which you might proceed as much further in 
the pursuit of this pleasing science as taste or oppor- 
tunity might lead you. I had no expectation that 
my letters would form even an epitome of the most 
common facts. ‘They were merely intended as an ex- 
periment upon the possibility of conveying strictly 
scientific knowledge in a simple and amusing form, 
and of showing that Botany is by no means that dry, 
difficult, repulsive subject, which it may well appear 
to those who only know it through the uninviting 
medium of systematic works. I thought it practi- 
cable, without at all deserting science, to divest her 
of the severe, forbidding features that she puts on 
when dressed in the starched, old-fashioned, matter-of- 
fact costume of the schools, and to shew that it is 
in her wild and unsophisticated state that she shines 
forth in all her smiles and loveliness, when her flowers 
are newly gathered, their colours fresh, and their 
fragrance unimpaired, and not when every thing is 
dry and withered, and formally labelled with the 
Greek and Latin names of science. I was, moreover, 
anxious that the endless variety of beautiful objects 
which the Vegetable world so prodigally strews before 
our path should, with those who from their habits 
of life and their gentler feelings are the most sensible 
to the charms of nature, become something beyond 
a vague sentiment of undefined admiration. The 
love for flowers is a holy feeling, inseparable from 
our very nature ; it exists alike in savage and civilized 
society ; it speaks with the same powerful voice to the 
great and wealthy and to the poor and lowly; it: 


Cc 


PRELIMINARY. 3 


grows up and flourishes with our innocence, and it 
only perishes with the best and truest feelings of 
humanity. 


— O Father, Lord! 

The All-Beneficent! I bless thy name, 

That thou hast mantled the green earth with flowers, 
Linking our hearts to nature! By the love 

Of their wild blossoms, our young footsteps first 
Into her deep recesses are beguiled, 

Her minster cells ; dark glen and forest bower, 
Where, thrilling with its earliest sense of Thee, 
Amidst the low religious whisperings 

And shivering leaf-sounds of the solitude, 

The spirit wakes to worship, and is made 

Thy living temple. By the breath of flowers 
Thou callest us, from city throngs and cares, 
Back to the woods, the birds, the mountain streams, 
That sing of Thee! back to free childhood’s heart, 
Fresh with the dews of tenderness !—Thou bidd’st 
The lilies of the field with placid smile 

Reprove man’s feverish strivings, and infuse 
Through his warm soul a more unworldly life, 
With their soft gentle breath. Thou hast not left 
His purer nature, with its fine desires, 

Uncared for in this universe of thine! 

The glowing rose attests it, the beloved 

Of poet hearts, touched by their fervent dreams 
With spiritual he@ht, and made a source 

Of heaven-ascending thoughts. Een to faint age 
Thou lend’st the vernal bliss :—the old man’s eye 
Falls on the kindling blossoms, and his soul 
Remembers youth and love, and hopefully 

Turns unto Thee, who call’st earth’s buried germs 
From dust to splendour ; as the mortal seed 

Shall, at thy summons, from the grave spring up 


To put on glory, to be girt with power, 
Bz 


4. LETTER. XXVI. 


And filled with immortality. Receive 
Thanks, blessings, love, for these, thy lavish boons, 
And, most of all, their heavenward influences, 


O Thou that gav’st us flowers ! 


“La vue dune fleur,” says Madame Roland, ‘ ca- 
resse mon imagination et flatte mes sens a un port 
inexprimable—elle reveille avec volupté le sentiment 
de mon existence—sous le tranquille abri du toit 
paternel, jetais heureuse des Venfance avec des 
fleurs et des livres—dans Vlétroite enceinte dune 
prison, au milieu des fers imposés par la tyrannie la 
plus révoltante, joublie linjustice des hommes, leurs 
sottises et mes maux, avec des livres et des fleurs.” 

How much stronger and more permanent an influ- 
ence must those feelings exercise upon our nature 
when the lovely objects that give rise to them are 
known by something beyond a name, or a favourite 
colour, or a delightful fragrance ; when we are ac- 
quainted with their structure, and so familiar with 
their habits as to understand how it is they grow and 
live and multiply, and to what uses they may be 
applied, and by what contrivances, equally simple, 
invariable, and surprising, a small number of elements 
constitutes all those different organs, whose singular 
forms and brilliant colours so continually excite our 
admiration. 

The power and wisdom of the Deity are proclaimed 
by no part of the Creation in more impressive lan- 
guage than by the humblest weed that we tread 
beneath our feet; but we must learn to understand 
the mysterious language in which we are addressed ; 


PRELIMINARY. a 


and we find its symbols in the curious structure, and 
the wondrous fitness of all the minute parts of which 
a plant consists, for the several uses they are destined 
for. This, and this only, is the “language of flowers ;” 
and it was of this that I hoped in my former letters 
to give you some idea. 

You tell me, however, that your curiosity is still 
unsatisfied, that you know not where to seek for other 
books in which similar information is to be found, and 
that the progress of your children in the classifica- 
tion of the various objects that surround them is 
accompanied by doubt and disappointment. I might 
easily name to you the very books you should read, 
and point out to you the very places in which you 
should search for the information you require, but I 
fear that you would still retam your opinion that it 
would have been better if, mstead of idly referring 
you to the elucidations of others, I had had the indus- 
try to carry our correspondence a little further. Well 
then, let it be so! innocent knowledge is the best and 
most enduring foundation of permanent happiness, 
and far be it from me to refuse my humble assistance 
in contributing to the means by which the world may 
secure to itself the utmost amount of simple pleasures. 

We will, therefore, resume our correspondence upon 
Botany; and this time, if your patience should not be 
exhausted, I promise to provide you with sufficient 
means for carrying your inquiries to whatever point you 
please, in respect of all those subjects which you 
would think of investigating for mere amusement’s 
sake. In the first-place, you shall have an account of 


6 LETTER XXVI. 


those common tribes of plants about which I have, 
as yet, said nothing; then you shall learn to which of 
such tribes all the common plants both of the fields 
and the gardens belong; and finally, I will give you 
a little sketch of the general classification of those 
which have been previously brought before you only 
in detail. With this I may combine, when favour- 
able opportunities occur, short episodes relating to 
the internal structure of plants, and the manner in 
which they grow; and, thus, I trust that an air of 
life and truth will be given to all the picture. 

This will, I hope, fulfil your expectations, er, at 
least, relieve me from the reproach of unwillingness 
to satisfy your curiosity so far as my skill will permit 
me. 


Suppose we begin with Macnottias, those beautiful 
American trees, which form the pride of European 
gardens, and the glory of the forests of North Ame- 
rica, and many parts of Asia. 

Observe that noble looking evergreen, with its 
large, shining, bright green leaves, in the bosom of 
which are reposing some cream-white flowers, much 
larger than any others you ever saw, and with a pile 
of purple and yellow stamens heaped up in their centre. 
That is the Big Laurel of the Americans, the large- 
flowered Magnolka (Magnolia grandiflora) of Bota- 
nists, and the handsomest of its tribe. It is found wild 
in the warmer parts of the United States, especially in 
South Carolina and the Floridas, and it shrinks from the 
cold weather of more northern climates. In its native 


THE MAGNOLIA TRIBE. 


forests it grows as much as ninety feet high, which is 
as high as the largest tree you ever saw in this 
country, and much higher than any even of the beau- 
tiful old elms that are scattered about in the park 
before you. A specimen of this size is described by 
a French Botanist as surpassing all other trees, ‘ par 
son port majestueux, son superbe feuillage, et ses 
fleurs magnifiques.” In this country it is too delicate 
to endure the blasts of our bitter winters, without 
some protection; but, as you see, it is very happy 
beneath the shelter of a wall, and pays no attention to 
the bonds with which it is secured to its prison. 
Beautiful as are its huge goblet-shaped blossoms, and 
surpassingly delicate as its buds of polished alabaster, 
it wants the rich perfume of many of its kindred. 
There is the glaucous Magnolia with smaller flowers, 
and leaves having a blueish bloom beneath them, by 
which nature points it out to the gatherers of the 
bark that cures the fevers so frequent in the un- 
healthy swamps where it delights to grow; and the 
long-leaved Cucumber-tree (Magnolia auriculata), so 
called because its leaves taste ike Cucumber, with its 
spreading foliage, which has given it and some others 
the name of Umbrella trees; and the /long-leaved 
Umbrella tree (Magnolia macrophylla), whose leaves 
are sometimes three feet long; these are species 
whose delicate cup-shaped flowers fill the air with 
their perfume. It is, however, in the East and not 
in the West that the Magnolia tribe has its fragrance 
most elaborated. In the dwarf Talauma of the 
Chinese (Magnolia pumila), with its yellow and brown 


8 LETTER RVs 


flowers, and the Z'sjampaca, the most beautiful of 
trees, beneath whose majestic foliage the native 
Indian constructs his cottage of Bamboo stakes and 
Palm leaves, the essence of the Magnolia perfume is 
developed in all its power. These trees are indeed 
the living altars from which a perpetual cloud of 
imcense is ascending unto heaven day by day, as if in 
gratitude for the profusion with which the gifts of 
Nature are so prodigally poured forth from the lap of 
earth in those favoured regions. 

After such an account as this you will be surprised 
to hear that Magnolias are nearly akin to the Crow- 
foot tribe (Vol. 1. p. 13. #1. 1.); that those beau- 
tiful trees, with their fragrant flowers and noble leaves, 
are related to such weeds as the wild Ranunculus, 
and the Thalictrum. And yet, such is undoubtedly 
the fact. Just observe the construction of the flower of 
this heart-leaved Magnolia (Plate XX VI. 1.). You 
see it has a calyx of three small reflexed sepals (fig. 
1. a.); and six upright, yellowish, rather leathery 
petals, of which three are something narrower than 
the others. Within these are placed many stiff 
stamens (fig. 2.), arranged in several rows upon a 
receptacle of a somewhat conical figure (fig. 3. a.) ; 
each anther has two cells placed at the edge of a 
stiff fleshy filament (fig. 4.), and the cells are so 
situated that when they open the pollen will fall 
out on the side next the petals (fig. 3.) ; this kind of 
anther is what is called technically extrorsal. In the 
centre of the flower is a large number of carpels, 
each of which contains one cell with two ovules in it 


THE MAGNOLIA TRIBE. 9 


(fig. 3.), and is terminated by a narrow thread-shaped 
stigma (fig. 3. b.). Those cells grow together into a 
solid pistil, and eventually change to a cone-like fruit, 
the seeds of which are principally composed of albu- 
men, with a tiny embryo lying perdu in its base. 

Such is the general structure of the heart-leaved 
Magnolia, and in what points of importance does it 
differ from a Ranunculaceous plant? It has a calyx 
of three sepals; so has Ranunculus Ficaria; it has 
six petals, so have many Anemones; its stamens are 
numerous, and placed on a receptacle beneath the 
carpels, their anthers grow to the edge of the fila- 
ments, and the carpels are very numerous; in all 
these things it agrees with Ranunculus itself; but the 
carpels grow to one another: the same thing happens 
in Love in a mist (Nigella) ; and, finally, the nature of 
the seed of a Ranunculus and a Magnolia is nearly 
the same. Are these plants then nothing but Crowfoots 
of alarger growth ? merely Ranunculaceous plants with 
the stature of forest trees? Not quite so. The two 
orders are, as I have already stated, nearly akin to each 
other, but they belong to different races, and may be 
certainly enough distinguished. Do you see how each 
of these branches of the Magnolia is terminated by a 
little horn that springs from the base of the last leaf ? 
(fig. 5. a.); that horn is a pair of stipules rolled 
together for the protection of the next leaf that is to 
be born; and that next leaf has a similar pair of 
stipules that roll up over the still younger leaf lying 
in its bosom; so that if you cut into the horn you will 
behold several generations of leaves lying enfolded the 


10 LETTER XXVI. 


one within the other; this is the great mark of the Mag- 
nolia tribe, and enables you immediately to distinguish 
it, not only from the Crowfoots, but from most of those 
allied to it. And this is not only a curious but an 
important and highly imteresting mark of distinc- 
tion; the growing point of a branch of a Magnolia 
is tender, and requires to be carefully protected from 
the air, and from cold, and from those accidents to 
which all things must necessarily be subject that are 
directly exposed. To guard this tender part nature 
has many singular, but always most efficient, contriy- 
ances: in this instance the stipules are made to per- 
form the business of protection. 

The fruit of Magnolias differs in some respects 
from that of the Crowfoot tribe: especially in be- 
coming large cones, from the back of which the seeds 
often hang down by long cords; but as Magnolias do 
not produce their fruit in this country it is unneces- 
sary to describe this part of their structure. 

Besides the plants called Magnolias, the curious 
Tulip-tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), one of the largest 
trees in the American forests, belongs to the present 
Order. You may know it by its smgular truncated 
leaves, which look as if they were cut off at the end, 
and by its large pale green and purple flowers. It is 
not uncommon in the pleasure grounds of the old 
gentry of this country; some of the finest are to be 
seen at Sion, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland. 


From these let us turn to a not less interesting, but 
more humble race of plants, of which the common 


THE BARBERRY TRIBE. FE 


Barperry may be taken as the representative (Plate 
xxvyi. 2.). This plant is so common in plantations and 
pleasure grounds, that all persons would be acquainted 
with it, if it were only for the quantities of bunches of 
red succulent acid fruit with which it is loaded in the 
autumn ; and for its evil reputation as a poisoner of 
wheat when it grows in the hedge-row of a corn-field. 
You will find the branches of this bush covered 
over with sharp spies (fig. 1. a.), some of which are 
divided into three, or five, or even a greater number 
of lobes, and some of which are undivided. What 
think you are these? Not prickles like those of the 
Rose, for they are regularly arranged over the stem, 
and will not break off by a slight pressure sideways ; 
nor spines like those of the Hawthorn, for in the 
Hawthorn the spines originate in the bosom of leaves, 
but in the Barberry the leaves originate in the bosom 
of the spines. These parts are an exceedingly curious 
state of the leaf. They are the first kind of leaf that 
the Barberry produces when it shoots forth from the 
bud ; but immediately after, or perhaps at the same 
moment with, their production, other perfectly formed 
leaves break out from their axils, and thus at nearly 
the same instant, the branches are covered with 
spines for their defence, and with leaves for their 
adornment. That these spines really are leaves you 
may easily ascertain by looking for a very vigorous 
shoot of the Barberry, when you will find some of 
them with the space between the stiff spiny lobes filled 
up by a web of parenchyma, others with the web hardly 
visible, and others with the spines alone remaining. 


12 LETTER XXVI. 


The leaves are themselves bordered by spiny teeth 
which are the points of their veins, and there is 
a little joint near their base (fig. 1. 6.), by which 
they are articulated with their stalk. 

From the midst of a cluster of leaves appear the 
yellow flowers, in a drooping raceme something like 
that of a currant. Each flower consists of three little 
external scales tipped with red; they are the outer- 
most sepals; then of three petal-like parts (fig. 2. a.), 
the inner sepals; and within these of six genuine 
petals. The great similarity between the parts thus 
differently designated shews you that the distinction 
between a calyx and corolla is In many cases very 
arbitrary, although in other instances it may be plain 
enough. At the base of each of the true petals are 
two parallel yellow oblong glands (fig. 2. 6.), the 
nature and use of which is unknown. Between these 
glands and opposite to the petals are the stamens, six 
in number, consisting of a filament somewhat thick- 
ened at its upper end (fig. 4. & 5.), and an anther 
whose lobes, growing to each side of the end of the 
filament, have a singular mode of opening. At first 
the lobes resemble those of any common anther, but 
when the time comes for the fertilization of the stigma, 
instead of splitting along the middle, the anther opens 
at the edge all round, except near the point, and libe- 
rates its valve or face, which curves back and allows 
the pollen to drop out (fig. 4.a.). This is a very 
curious phenomenon, and is technically called bursting 
by recurved valves. 

The ovary is an oblong body (fig. 3.), terminated 


THE BARBERRY TRIBE. 13 


by a flattish, round, sessile stigma, in the centre of 
which is a small opening that communicates with the 
single cell (fig. 5.) that the ovary contains. From 
the bottom of the cell, but rather obliquely, there 
arise two ovules (fig. 5.). 

In time the ovary changes to an oblong acid scarlet 
fleshy berry (fig. 6.), contaiming one or two seeds (fig. 
7.). The seeds have a tough skin, and enclose a 
slender embryo (fig. 8.), standing erect in the midst 
of hard albumen. 

In this plant you will at once perceive several cir- 
cumstances that you have not previously seen. In 
the first place its stamens are the same number as the 
petals, and opposite to them; and secondly their 
anthers open by recurved valves. ‘These two points 
taken together, limit the Barberry Tribe, which con- 
tains the beautiful evergreen Ash-leaved species, or 
Mahonias, of which Berberis aquifolium or the Holly- 
leaved is so striking an instance, and also the singular 
brown-flowered Epimedium, whose small unattractive 
blossoms just raise themselves upon their thread- - 
shaped stalks, and peep forth from the leaves which 
half shroud and half reveal them. 

In the flower of the Barberry is a curious instance 
of irritability. The stamens are in a recumbent 
position when the flowers first open, lymg back close- 
pressed upon the petals. But if you touch one of 
their filaments with a pin, the stamen gently rises up 
and strikes its anther against the stigma, just as the 
figures in old-fashioned clocks strike their hammers 
upon the bells when chimes are sounded. No one 


14 LETTER XXVI. 


knows the cause of this curious habit; it is one of 
those certain but inscrutable facts, the explanation 
of which is probably beyond the faculties of man. 
There is one thing, however, connected with it that 
deserves to be noticed, although it does not throw 
light upon the nature of the phenomenon. If you 
dose the Barberry with laudanum or any opiate, the 
stamens are stupified and lose their elasticity ; and 
if you poison the plant by some corrosive substance, 
such as arsenic, which produces inflammation in 
animals, a sort of vegetable inflammation is produced 
in the stamens of the Barberry. We are not, however, 
on that account to conclude that this plant approaches 
animals in its nature, but merely that the principle of 
life which pervades all nature is the same in its es- 
sence, and is affected in a similar manner by similar 
causes, whether it exists in an animal or a vegetable. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXVI. 


I, Toe Macnouta Tripe.—]. A full-blown flower of Magnolia cor- 
data, the natural size, showing the sepals a, and the six yellow petals, 
in the midst of which are seen the stamens anda small portion of the 
carpels.—2. The stamens without the petals, together with the mass 
of carpels in the middle.—3. A vertical section of the latter part, a 
little magnified ; a sl ows the elevated receptacle, over the outside of 
which the numerous stamens are arranged; at 6b are seen the stigmas 
with their uneven inner edge admirably adapted to collecting the pollen; 
and below some of the styles are the cavities of the ovary, in each of 
which are two ovules.—4. is a filament and anther, a little magni- 
fied.—5. The lower part of a leaf and its petiole, with its horn-like 
hairy stipule; at a is seen the scar of the opposite leaf which had 
dropped off, and 4 shews a portion of the end of the branch. 


15 


II. Tue Barserry Trise.—l. A twig of the common Barberry 
(Berberis vulgaris), with a spine-like leaf at a; at b is a line 
showing where the leaf is jomted with its petiole ; natural size.—2. A 
full-blown flower, magnified, showing the three inner sepals a, the six 
petals, each with a pair of parallel glands 6 at the base, the six stamens, 
and the central superior ovary; the outer sepals are too small to be 
seen in this direction, but they are visible upon the flowers in fig. 1.— 
3. A magnified view of the ovary, deprived of the floral envelopes, 
and shewing the origin of the six stamens.—4. The upper end of a 
stamen, magnified ; at a is seen the singular mode in which the anther 
bursts by recurved valves.—5. A vertical section of the ovary, much 
magnified ; the two erect ovules, and the open communication between 
the stigma and the cavity of the ovary, are plainly shewn.—6. A 
bunch of fruit, natural size.—7. One of the seeds, magnified.—8. A 
section of the same, shewing the dicotyledonous embryo standing erect 
in the midst of the albumen. 


- 


LETTER XXVII. 


PISTIL—-THE GOOSEBERRY TRIBE—-THE VINE TRIBE. 


Sakae 


CPiste XG ke) 


— 


LPL LLL LED LL ODD LIED O DD 


n_ 


Is it possible that I should no where have told you 
the meaning of the common word pistil? You say 
you perfectly understand what a carpel is, but that 
you do not find in what respect a pistil differs from it. 
I am ashamed of my negligence, and hasten to repair 
it. ‘The general name of the young fruit, consisting of 
ovary, style, and stigma, is pistil; the pistil is usually 
composed of several carpels, each of which has its own 
ovary, style, and stigma, as ina Ranunculus, where the 
mass of the carpels is the pistil; but it may consist of 
but one carpel, as in the Barberry, and in that case 
the words carpel and pistil have the same meaning. ~ 

Premising this, let me direct your attention to the 
GoosEeBerry Trine, of which not only the plant that 
gives it its name, but all the currants are likewise 
members. 

Currants you know are not confined to the kitchen 
garden ; for besides the red, the white, and the black 
currants, every-body now possesses the sweet-scented 
yellow currant (fides aureum), the crimson currant 
(tibes sanguineum), and other beautiful species which 
have been snatched from their native rocks and wilds 


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THE GOOSEBERRY TRIBE. 17 


in New Albion to adorn the gardens of even English 
cottagers. 

There is something in the organisation of these 
flowers particularly simple and pretty. Take the 
Common Gooseberry, for example (Plate XX VII. 1.). 
The spines with which the stem of this plant is de- 
fended, are of the same nature as those of the Barberry, 
that is to say they are rigid leayes, without the soft 
green pulpy substance, or parenchyma, that usually 
connects their veins. In the true leaves there is no- 
thing to remark upon, further than that they are 
somewhat 3-lobed, and bluntly toothed along their 
margin; their stalks, however, are beautiful objects if 
examined by a microscope, because of the delicate 
border of half-transparent hair-like fringes, which, when 
magnified, look like the most brilliant needle-shaped 
crystals. The flowers are little green cups, purple in 
the inside, and grow in pairs, or singly, from among the 
leaves, which overshadow and protect them so com- 
pletely that when a bush is in full flower you may pass 
it and hardly remark the blossoms. The cup (fig. 
2.), green without and purple within, is the calyx; 
its border is divided into 5 blunt lobes, which are 
turned downwards. At the mouth of the cup you will 
find 5 tiny whitish scales, having each a short stalk 
with a tuft of hairs at its base (fig. 3. a.); these are 
petals. Between the petals are the stamens: 5 upright 
filaments, with an oval anther at the point, and a tuft 
of hairs at its base (fig. 3.). In the centre of all this 
apparatus rise two green threads, covered with long 
hairs at the base, but naked and terminated by a small 

VOL. II. : c 


18 LETTER XXVII. 


stigma ; of course these threads are styles : where then 
is the ovary? You shall see. Just below the cup of 
the calyx and above its stalk is a small oval swelling, 
clothed with long delicate hairs; it is hollow, and 
bears a great number of ovules, arranged m two lines 
upon its sides (fig. 3. b.); the styles are planted upon 
its summit ; this then is the ovary, from which the 
gooseberry is to be produced. You could hardly have 
anticipated, before you began to study this science, 
how curious and complicated an apparatus is necessary 
for the production of so simple a fruit; everything 
you see is perfect, and in this tmy flower you have 
all the parts which you could find even in the gigantic 
Magnolia, only not so many of them, and differently 
arranged. And so it always is; be quite sure that in 
what may seem to you the most insignificant parts of 
the creation, there is the same foresight, the same ad- 
mirable contrivance, the same beautiful adaptation of 
every part to the end it has to answer, and the same 
care to ensure against all accidents its multiplication 
after its kind, as in what we may habitually look upon 
so inconsiderately as the most perfect of the Creator’s 
works. When rightly examined it will be found that 
no one thing is more perfect than another; each is 
perfect after its kind; imperfection is unknown in the 
creation ; to argue otherwise is to argue against the 
power and wisdom of the Deity. 

After a time the calyx-cup, the petals, stamens, and 
styles, shrmk up and decay: at the same time the 
ovary swells, the hairs upon its surface either harden 
or fall off, its interior becomes succulent, the ovules 


THE GOOSEBERRY TRIBE. 19 


change to seed, they elevate themselves upon long 
stalks, and immerse themselves in the pulpy interior, 
the colour of the whole changes to red or yellow, and 
the ripe Gooseberry is completed. 

If at this time it is divided into two parts from its 
apex to its base, it will be found to consist of a soft 
watery mass enclosed in a tough skin, which is the 
pericarp, and containing several hard seeds of a deep 
brown-purple colour, originating from a sort of web- 
like placenta. These seeds are secured by a green 
thread, which passes from one end tothe other of the 
seed, on one side, forming a raphe (fig. 6. a.), and 
ending in a broadish expansion, or chalaza (fig. 6. 6.). 
Within the skin, which is thick and tough, is a large 
quantity of hard albumen, at the base whereof lies a 
small dicotyledonous embryo (fig. 7.). 

The common eatable Currants, and several other 
species found in different parts of Europe and Asia, 
are very like it; but this is not the case throughout 
the whole tribe. For example, the Crimson Goose- 
berry (Ribes speciosum), has a rich deep red calyx, 
with long narrow segments, and stamens projecting so 
far as to resemble those of the Fuchsia (see Botanical 
Register, tab. 1557.). In the golden-flowered Currant 
(Ribes aureum), the calyx is a bright clear yellow, 
with a long yellow tube, and the petals and stamens 
are short as in the common Gooseberry. ‘These are 
the different forms of the Gooseberry tribe. Consi- 
dering the manifest resemblance between a bunch of 
Currants and a bunch of Grapes, you will not be sur- 

c 2 


20 LETTER KEV 


prised at hearmg that the Vine has ‘some relationship 
with the Gooseberry tribe. This I now proceed to 
explain to you. 

The common Vine, a native of the South of Asia, 
is the type of the Vine Triste (Plate X XVII. 2.). 
It has, as you know, very large lobed leaves, not at all 
unlike those of a Currant magnified, and its flowers 
grow in Clusters, which however are not racemes, but 
panicles, that is to say, branched racemes (fig. 1.). 
The stem too is not that of a bush, but long and weak, 
and requires the support of other trees, to avail itself 
of which it is supplied with tendrils. Here let me 
pause to tell you what a tendril is; by its name you 
would suppose it some special kind of organ formed 
expressly for the purpose of helping the Vine to raise 
itself among the forests it naturally mhabits, and to 
ascend from the shady thickets where it is born, to 
the free light and air that are necessary for its ex- 
istence. Not at all; this is not the plan of Nature. 
Plants are furnished with certain general parts, such as 
leaves, flowers, &c., and when any particular and un- 
usual office is to be performed, some one of these parts 
is specially altered in order to meet the exigency. Thus 
in Combretum the stem is enabled to rise among other 
bushes by the soft and yielding stalks of its leaves 
being changed into stiff inflexible hooks; in the Sweet 
Pea the same office is performed by the principal 
leaf-stalk, which lengthens, branches, and twists itself 
round bushes and the branches of smaller shrubs. In 
some plants indeed this office is actually performed by 


THE VINE TRIBE. oe | 


the tips of the petals. In the Vine the arrangement 
is different from all those just mentioned, and equally 
simple ; a considerable number of supernumerary pa- 
nicles are prepared, on which no flowers are formed, 
but in their room a power of twisting round adjoining 
bodies is communicated to the branches; and these 
form what we call tendrils. But to return to other 
matters. 

Each flower of a Vine (fig. 2.) consists of a calyx 
without any lobes to it (a.); five petals (b.) that hold 
together at the poimt, separate at the base, and are 
carried upwards with the extension of the stamens ; of 
five stamens (fig. 2. c. and fig. 3.) opposite the petals, 
with long thread-shaped filaments and small oval an- 
thers ; of five glands alternating with the stamens (fig. 
2. d.); and of a two-celled superior ovary, with a sessile 
roundish stigma (fig. 3.). In each cell of the ovary 
are two upright ovules (fig. 5. & 6.). The fruit is, 
as you know, a succulent berry, with one, or two, or 
three, or four, hard seeds nestling in the pulp (fig. 7.). 
These seeds are not a little curious ; each has a pear- 
shaped figure (fig. 8.), and consists firstly of a tough 
external even coating, and secondly of a wavy bony 
lining, which does not follow the form of the outer skin, 
but puckers up, if I may so say, and forms a pear- 
shaped stone convex on one side, but with two deep 
furrows on the other, so that when you cut through it 
crosswise it looks almost like the letter T (fig. 9.). 
In the inside of the stone is a hard albumen, at the 
base of which (fig. 10.) lies a tiny embryo ( fig. 11.). 


22 LETTER XXVII. 


This is the general character of the Vine tribe, 
the genera and species of which usually deviate so little 
from the Vine itself, that you would hardly fail to 
recognise them at the first glance. The Fox grapes of 
America (Vitis Labrusca and others) are, for instance, 
Vines with broader and more woolly leaves, and berries 
with a vile indescribable taste ; the Liver-grape (Vitis 
odoratissima, or riparia), the delicious odour of whose 
flowers makes ample amends for their minuteness, 
would be taken for a common Vine if its leaves were 
not less lobed and more heart-shaped, and its berries 
so small, and black, and acid; while the American 
creeper (Ampelopsis quinquefolia), with its rich autum- 
nal mantle of crimson, and the various kinds of Cissus, 
deviate from the ordinary appearance of the Vine 
chiefly in consequence of the leaves bemg separated 
into several distinct pieces. 

Considering how common, and how useful a plant 
the Vine is, it is worth pausing here to consider a 
little, to what other plants it is most related; and I 
am the more inclined to do so because you like to be 
surprised, and some of its relations are undoubtedly 
of a very surprisig character. What say you to 
Hemlock ? I think I see you throw down my letter 
with what would be astonishment, if it were not for 
the incredulity mixed up with it. And yet [ am not 
mystifying you, but in plain, sober, serious English, I 
say that the Vine and the Hemlock are nearly related 


to each other. For the proof ; 


THE VINE 


The VINE has 

Leaves deeply lobed, alternate 
upon the stem, with a stalk 
whichis a good deal dilated at 
the base. 

A calyx with searcely any lobes. 

A corolla with five petals. 

Five stamens. 

A two-celled fruit. 

Seeds with a very small embryo 
lying at that end of the albu- 

- men which is next the hilum. 

An albumen deeply furrowed on 


the inside. 


TRIBE. 93 


The Hemuock has 

Leaves deeply lobed, alternate 
upon the stem, with a stalk 
which is a good deal dilated 
at the base. 

A calyx with scarcely any lobes. 

A corolla with five petals. 

Five stamens. 

A two-celled fruit. 

Seeds with a very small embryo 
lying at that end of the albu- 
men which is next the hilum. 

An albumen deeply furrowed on 


the inside. 


In these points, which are of first-rate consequence, 
affecting the whole nature of the plants, you perceive 


that the two are the same. 


The Vine has 
A superior ovary. 
Erect seeds. 
Stamens opposite the petals. 


A pulpy fruit. 


But 


The HEMLocK has 
An inferior ovary. 
Pendulous seeds. 
Stamens alternate with the petals. 


A dry fruit. 


And some of these differences, slight as they are, 
are calculated to produce a considerable difference in 
the general aspect of the two plants, independently of 
the Vine being a woody climbing plant with panicled 
flowers, and the Hemlock a herbaceous biennial plant 
with umbelled flowers. 

My proof of the relationship of the two plants does 
not however stop here, but is strengthened by other 
means. It is easy to shew a direct transition from 
the Vine to the Hemlock by a very brief examination 
of the plants that stand between the one and the other 


Q4) LETTER XXVII. 


in a natural arrangement. Observe, the Vine is a V1- 
taceous plant, the Hemlock an Umbelliferous plant ; 
to state this is to simplify the discussion. 

Umbelliferous plants are allowed upon all hands to 
be distinguishable from Araliaceous plants, only by 
their fruit consisting of two parts instead of more, and 
by their fruit bemg dry imstead of succulent. 

Araliaceous plants are therefore Umbelliferous plants 
with succulent fruit. The common Ivy may be taken 
as a representative of the former. Many of the Kast 
Indian Ivies have their fruit in just such clusters as 
the Grape, and their leaves as much divided as in the 
Virginian creeper, so that they differ from Vitaceous 
plants only in their imferior fruit, pendulous seeds, 
and stamens alternating with the petals. Their close 
relationship is therefore unquestionable. 

Then, if Vitaceous plants are closely akin to Ara- 
liaceous, and Araliaceous to Umbelliferous, it fol- 
lows that Umbelliferous must be nearly allied to Vi- 
taceous through Araliaceous, and consequently the 
Hemlock must be related to the Grape, as I at first 
told you. I hope you are now satisfied. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXVILI. 


I. THe Gooseperry Tripe.—l. A twig of the common Gooseberry 
(Ribes Grossularia) in flower, natural size —2. A separate flower mag 
nified, with the bractlets at a, and the inferior ovary at b—3. The 
same divided in two, perpendicularly, and still more magnified ; at the 
base is seen the one-celled ovary, with the wo parietal placente 6.; a 


points to the petals. —4, Shews the appearance of a magnified transverse 


slice of the ovary, with the numerous ovules crowded over the placentee 
a a.—5. is a section of a ripe fruit, shewing the remains of the flower 
adhering to its apex, and the seeds attached to the placente a a, by 
their long stalks.—6. is a magnified view of a seed with its stalk, 
raphe a, and chalaza 6.—7. A section of the same, to shew the embryo 
lying in the base of the albumen; 6 is the chalaza.—s8. is an embryo 
much magnified. 

Il. Tue Vine Trise.—l. A portion of a bunch of flowers of the 
common Grape ( Vitis vinifera).—2. A magnified flower in the act of 
opening ; the calyx a is at the base in the form of a cup ; the stamens c 
are pushing off the petals b ; d are the glands of the disk —3. Is the 
same flower after the petals have dropped off, and the stamens are libe- 
rated ; here the ovary, with its sessile stigma, is distinctly seen in the 
middle.—4. A portion of a stamen magnified, with the anther in the 
position it occupies when heaving up the petals; see how it bends its 
shoulders (I beg pardon, its shoulder) to the task.—5. A magnified 
view of the longitudinal section of a young grape; a the calyx; ba 
ring from which the petals separate ; c the glands; d the stigma. The 
ovules are standing erect in the two cavities—6. A magnified view of 
a slice of the ovary, shewing that there are two ovules in each cell. — 
7. A section ofa grape-berry.—8. One of the seeds.—9. A transverse 
section of the last, shewing the external coat and the internal stone. — 
10. A vertical section of the same, with the little embryo at the base of 
the albumen.—1l1. A highly magnified view of the dicotyledonous 
embryo. 


LETTER XXVIII. 


THE PITTOSPORUM TRIBE—THE MILKWORT TRIBE. 


rece 


rane 


Plate XXVIII. 


wee 


eeeeneaenthentaaaadaeeedl 


Ir is a common statement that New Holland pro- 
duces no eatable fruits, for that even the few wild 
berries which the traveller meets with are more dry, 
tasteless and insipid than those of any other country. 
The Pears,* say the grumbling colonists, are made of 
wood, Cherriest have the stones on the outside of the 
flesh, Grapest are nauseous, and grow on Bindweed, the 
Currant-bushes§ prickly, and the Gooseberries|| with- 
out thorns, while the Honeysuckle{ has no odour, and 
the Oak** no foliage. Although these are mere idle 
tales, arising from the names of European plants being 
misapplied to New Holland species of a totally dif- 
ferent nature, yet it 1s true that the whole of that vast 
continent is, as far as has yet been seen, destitute of 
any fruit-bearing plant that deserves cultivation. 

The nearest ally of the Grape and the Currant for 
instance, is a beautiful twining evergreen plant with 
small dark green leaves, and large berries of the deepest 


* Xylomelum pyriforme. + Exocarpus cupressiformis. 
} Polygonum adpressum. § Leucopogon. || Gaultheria, 


{ Banksia. ** Casuarina. 


XXVU/. 1. | 


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THE PITTOSPORUM TRIBE. ZF 


lapis lazuli blue, resembling nothing so much in colour, 
and, to appearance, even in texture, as the fine deep 
blue of the porcelain of Sévres. It has small greenish- 
yellow bell-shaped flowers, and Botanists call it Billar- 
diera ; in Van Diemen’s Land, where it is extremely 
common, the name of Apple-berry is applied indiscri- 
minately to all the species. This most lovely fruit, 
although, as I shall presently shew you, nearly akin to 
the Vine, has none of its delicious flavour, but is a 
mere mass of cottony, or rather spongy, dry pulp, 
which would be tasteless if it were not for a dash of 
turpentine which is perceivable. If you do not possess 
the Billardieras already, let me advise you immediately 
to procure them for the low treillage in front of the 
conservatory, where they may be kept very well im mild 
winters, if protected with a little straw or a mat. 

Sure I am that if you do not possess these, you are, 
at least, the mistress of a plant of Sollya, and this will 
do as well as a Billardiera for the purpose of studying 
the characters of the Prrrosporum tribe to which they 
both belong. 

Sollya heterophylla( Plate XX VIII. 1.)isa little ever- 
green climbing plant, with light-green, alternate, oval, 
shining leaves, most of which have an even edge, but 
a feware, now and then, serrated ; there are no stipules, 
and the leaves have a slight odour of turpentine when 
rubbed. ‘The flowers grow in small nodding cymes or 
clusters, are bell-shaped, and of a beautiful bright blue, 
not unlike that of our own wild blue-bells (Hyacinthus 
non scriptus). The flower-stalks are slender, and 
have each a tiny awl-shaped bract at the base. The 


98 LETTER XXVIII. 


calyx consists of five narrow sharp sepals (fig. 3. a.), 
within which arise the ovate petals. There are five 
stamens alternate with the petals, and growing from 
below the ovary (fig. 3. b.), with narrow yellow anthers, 
converging into a cone that surrounds the style, and 
opening by two pores at the point (fig. 4.). The ovary 
is a slender downy body (fig. 5.), furrowed with deep 
channels, narrowed into a smooth white style (fig. 3. ¢.), 
ending in a small two-lobed stigma, and containing two 
cells. ( fig. 6.), in each of which are two rows of ovules 
attached to the placenta by long slender stalks ; these 
ovules are separated from each other by thin green 
horizontal plates. The beauty of Sollya lies entirely in 
its flower; its fruit is not rich and tempting in appear- 
ance like that of Billardiera, but an oblong, hard, hairy, 
brownish body (fig. 2 & 7.), tipped by the hardenedstyle. 
If you cut across it you will find it apparently separated 
internally into four cells ; but this is a deception, aris- 
ing from the matter that lines the inside of the ovary 
having grown up between the ovules so as to lodge 
them all in distinct cells; this is most evident when 
the fruit is cut lengthwise (fig. 7.), when every one of 
the little brown seeds is seen nestling in its own close 
box. The seeds have a minutely rough skin (fig. 8.), 
and retain the stalk you saw on them when ovules 
(fig. 8. a.). If you open them skilfully they will be 
found to consist of some hard brownish albumen, in 
which a very small embryo (fig. 9. a.) is lodged near 
the hilum. 

At first sight a plant like this appears very unlike 
a Vine; but if the two are botanically contrasted, it 


THE PITTOSPORUM TRIBE. QQ 


will be obvious enough that they are in fact very nearly 
related. Sollya and Billardiera climb; so do Vines ; 
they have all alternate leaves without stipules, their 
stamens are 5, their petals 5, their ovary superior and 
two-celled, their embryo a minute body lying in albu- 
men; and the Vine and Billardiera agree in having 
soft fruit, not that that is of much importance. ‘These 
points of resemblance are so numerous, among the 
most important parts of the structure, as to render the 
relationship of the tribe before us and Vines unques- 
tionable. They differ, however, too much to be 
actually included in the same tribe ; for these plants 
have not stamens opposite the petals, nor erect seeds, 
nor glands below the ovary, all which are distinctive 
marks of the Vine tribe. ‘They have therefore been 
collected into an assemblage called the PirrosporuM 
Trise after a genus of which no mention has as yet 
been made, and which you do not often meet with in 
gardens. Its species are very different in habit from 
Sollya and Billardiera, being upright evergreen bushes, 
and not climbers, and having a capsule that opens into 
valves, and not a soft berry. ‘The most common of 
the genus is the Tobira Tree (Pittosporum Tobira), 
an evergreen laurel-like bush, with cream-coloured 
sweet-scented flowers. It is not rare in extensive 
collections, and in some warm situations will even 
grow in the open air without protection in the winter. 
Nothing can be more unlike a Vine than Pittosporum 
itself; but it is closely allied to Sollya, which is next 
akin to Billardiera, the affinity of which to the Vine 
has been demonstrated. 


30 LETTER XXVIII. 


The last case has served to shew you another in- 
stance, in addition to those you are already acquainted 
with, of plants, apparently very dissimilar, being in 
reality near relations, and that it is only to Botanists 
that the limks which hold together what is, not very 
correctly, called the mighty chain of the creation, are 
perceptible. It will not be uninteresting to take this 
opportunity of making you acquainted with a highly 
curious natural order, which, with far more apparent 
resemblance to the Pittosporum tribe than the Vine, 
has in reality a much more distant relationship. 

On heaths, and sunny knolls, and on many a naked 
down all over England, is found a pretty little herb, 
with exquisitely curious tiny blossoms of blue, or white, 
or pink, which modestly peep up from the turf that che- 
rishes them. They callit Mirxworr (Plate XXVIII. 
2.). The ancients fancied that it, or some such plant, 
possessed the property of increasing the quantity of 
milk in the cows that fed upon it; hence its name. 
One never sees it cultivated in gardens, and yet it is of 
an exceedingly beautiful, and most curious structure ; 
but its flowers are so small that all which is most 
admirable in it is overlooked by the incurious observer, 
and larger foreign species, chiefly from the Cape of 
Good Hope, are nursed in greenhouses in its room. 
Our Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris), has weak rambling 
stems from two to eight inches long, clothed with 
minute, oval, sharp-pointed, deep green leaves, and 
terminated by a short raceme of flowers. ‘These have 
so very uncommon a form that I must describe them 
more particularly than usual. 


THE MILKWORT TRIBE. on 


Separate a single flower from the others (fig. 2.). 
At the base of its stalk grow three little scale-like 
bracts, of a pale delicate lilac colour, like the stalk 
itself (fig. 2. a.). The calyx has five sepals—* Five?” 
you will say, ‘I see but three.’—The calyx has five 
sepals, of which three are small, green, and narrow 
( fig. 2. b. b.), and two broad, bright blue, and spreading 
away from the flower like wings (fig. 2. ¢.c.). You 
no doubt mistook the last for petals, because they were 
delicate in texture and rich in colour; but it is not 
such qualities that constitute a calyx, as you have long 
since been aware ; a calyx is merely the outer row or 
whorl of leaves, and you will find that the two blue 
wings of the Milkwort grow from between the green 
sepals out of a row (fig. 2.), which, although a little 
broken, evidently belongs to one whorl. 

Now it is a general rule that whatever number of 
sepals there may be in a flower, there will be the same 
number of petals, if there are any at all; and although 
no doubt we have exceptions to this, yet such is the 
rule in most cases. “The Milkwort looks as if it were 
one of the exceptions, for upon examining its corolla, 
the greatest number of parts you seem able to make 
out is three (fig. 3. b.b.c.). Strip off the sepals, 
noting carefully the spots from which they separate 
(fig. 3. a.); you will then have a corolla with two 
erect, lanceolate, blue segments (fig. 3. 6. b.), and a 
sort of fringed projection in front of them (fig. 3. ¢.), 
called the crest ; this is but three parts. Let us, how- 
ever, examine the beautiful little crest a little more 
particularly, for which purpose we will cut it off the 


32 LETTER XXVIII. 


back petals, and look at its imside (fig. 4.); we shall 
then find that it is a ight blue, downy plate, divided 
at the point into two parcels of fringe (fig. 4. c. & c. ¢.), 
within which there is a little hood (fig. 4. b. b.), having 
the most delicate little whiskers in the world at its 
base. What are the two bundles of fringe, and the 
little hood ? they must be something similar in nature 
to what is found in other flowers, although strangely 
_ disguised. Botanists say that the hood is the point 
of the middle petal of three, and that it has the two 
side petals with their fringes firmly attached to its 
back, so that the crest is in reality made up of three 
petals naturally soldered together, and these, together 
with the two other petals at the back, make up the 
number five of which we have been in search. 

But where are the stamens of this curious plant? 
Not at the base of the ovary (fig. 7.), nor attached to 
the calyx, nor any where within sight. Lift up or 
press back the hood we have been talking of, and 
there you will find them. There are two rows of little 
yellow cases hidden beneath this hood ( fig. 4. 6.), four 
cases in each row, and adhering to a thin membra- 
nous plate (fig. 5. a.); the latter is the united fila- 
ments, and the cases are the anthers. Why they thus 
lie perdu beneath the hood in the inside of the crest 
you will perceive presently ; in the mean while observe 
that each anther not only opens by a pore at the point, 
( fig. 6.) but is one-celled. ‘The ovary (fig. 7.) is an 
oblong body, containing two cells, in each of which is 
one pendulous ovule (fig. 8.) ; it is furnished with a 
club-shaped style, and a thick two-lipped stigma, the 


THE MILKWORT TRIBE. 35 


upper lip of which (fig. 7. c.) is purple, large, and 
hooded, the lower (fig. 7.'b.) small, flat, yellow, and 
bent downwards. All the parts of the flower are so 
placed about the stigma, pressing upon it, that there 
is no room for insects, or even wind, to insinuate them- 
selves for the purpose of dispersing the pollen ; on that 
account the stigma fronts the hood under which the 
anthers are hidden, and, opening its wide mouth, (for 
surely that may be called wide, the two lips of which 
are so far apart as in this plant (c. g 6. in fig. 7.),) 
gapes to receive the pollen, which easily falls into it 
when the anthers open. ‘The fruit is a heart-shaped 
capsule (fig. 9.), opening through the middle of the 
cells, and allowing two pendulous seeds to fall out. 
The latter (fig. 10.) are small, oblong, dark brown, 
hairy bodies, at the hilum of which there is a curious 
white hairy lobe, or caruncula (fig. 10. 11. a.). They 
contain a large, flat, dicotyledonous embryo, lying in a 
small quantity of albumen ( fig. 11.). 

The Milkwort Tribe obviously differs in so many 
respects from the Pittosporum Tribe that it would be 
tedious and unnecessary to recount them. Neither 
is there any other assemblage of plants sufficiently 
similar to be mistaken for them, unless it is the 
Pea Tribe (Letter VIII.), and with that students 
do sometimes confound them, because of the resem- 
blance that the flowers of the Milkwort appear to bear 
to what are called papilionaceous. If, however, they 
are attentively considered they will be found not to 
resemble them in reality, for the two wings, which 
might be mistaken for the wings of a papilionaceous 

VOL. Il. D 


34 LETTER 'XXVIlIe 


flower, belong to the calyx and not to the corolla, 
which is a most important difference. 

Many a plant belonging to the Milkwort tribe grows 
wild in the southern parts of Europe, and at the Cape 
of Good Hope ; nor are species altogether wanting in 
any quarter of the globe. The Cape kinds are, as I 
have already told you, often cultivated in Greenhouses, 
of which they are a great ornament. Generally these 
plants are bitter ; but some of them abound to such a 
degree in saponaceous properties as to be real vegetable 
blanchisseuses. ‘There is, in particular, a plant in Peru, 
called Yallhoy (Monnina polystachya), an mfusion of 
whose bark is used by the ladies of that country for 
washing their beautiful hair, and finer is that hair said 
to be than any other in the world. ‘This | am not so 
unjust as to believe ; but the mere statement, with all 
its exaggeration, suffices to shew that the plant in 
question possesses properties of no common kind. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXVIII. 


I. Tue Pirrosporum Tripe.—l. A twig of Sollya heterophylla, 
or the various-leaved Sollya, in flower.—2. A small cluster of its 
fruit.—3. A calyx magnified, with the stamens converging in a cone 
around the style; a the sepals, 5 the anthers, ¢ the style—4. A set of 
the stamens curved back, and opened out; a the pores by which the anthers 
discharge their pollen.—5. An ovary.—6. The ovary cut across trans- 
versely, exhibiting the ovules lying in the two cells, and the ten ridges 
of hair that clothe the surface of the ovary —7. A longitudinal section 
of aripe fruit, shewing how the seeds are lodged in separate hollows, 
produced by the growing up of the sides of the ovary.—8. A seed, 


with its stalk or funiculus, a.—9. A section of the same, with the 


35 
embryo, a, lying in discoloured albumen.—10. An embryo very much 
magnified. 

II. Tue Mitkwort Trise.—i. A twig of common Milkwort 
(Polygala vulgaris).—2. A complete flower much magnified; @ the 
bracts, 6 6 the small sepals, ¢c the petaloid sepals, dd the back petals, 
e the crest.—3. A corolla from which the sepals have been removed ; a 
the scars from which the sepals have been taken, 6 4 the back petals, ¢ 
the crest, d the hood lying within the pouch.—4, A portion of the crest 
very much magnified, and seen from the inside; @ the hood or middle 
petal, b b the stamens, c one set of fringes, or one of the side petals, 
cc the other set of fringes, or side petal, dd the hairs on the inside 
of the crest.—5. One of the two parcels of stamens, a the filament, 4 
the anthers.—6. An anther.—7. An ovary, with the style a, and the 
stigma b c.—8. A longitudinal section of the ovary, shewing the two 
pendulous ovules.—9. A ripe capsule, opening and exposing its seeds 
a a, between the valves 6 b.—10. A seed; a, its caruncula.—l1. The 


same cut lengthwise, shewing the embryo 8, and the caruncula a. 


D 


LETTER. XXIX. 


THE MIGNONETTE TRIBE—DISK—THE CAPER TRIBE. 


crore reece 


Plate X XIX. 


One of the first flowers that we learn to gather— 
the very last that we cease to value—is Mignonette, 
that simple, unattractive weed, which is the envy of 
the gay and glittermg throng that surrounds it in a 
garden, and which has no rivalry to dread, except from 
the Rose and the Violet. We are delighted with its 
fragrance, but we seldom think of asking whether, 
beneath the green and brown colours of its flowers, 
there may not lurk some hidden beauties equally de- 
serving of admiration. It is one of the advantages 
of Botany, that it of necessity leads us to such in- 
quiries. Let us look into its history and structure. 

Mignonette (Reseda odorata) is generally reputed 
to be a native of Egypt and Barbary; but the only 
certain station for it is in the sandy country about 
Mascara, a fortified town of Algiers; writers on the 
Botany of Egypt make no mention of it. We find it 
in our gardens to be annual, sowing its seeds spon- 
taneously, and springing up year after year wherever 
it has once been eultivated ; but in reality it is a half- 
shrubby plant, like a wall-flower, and will live a long 
while, if protected from cold in the winter. I once 


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THE MIGNONETTE TRIBE. 37 


knew of a plant which had established itself in a cre- 
vice at the top of the back-wall in the inside a green- 
house, just beneath the glass roof; it remained orowing 
in that situation for some years, putting forth its odo- 
riferous flowers the whole winter long; and it had 
become quite a bush at the time when it was destroyed 
by an accident. 

In the leaves of Mignonette there is nothing suffi- 
ciently remarkable to poimt out; but the flowers are 
exceedingly curious. They grow in racemes (Plate 
XXIX. 1. fig. 1.), on longish stalks, from the bosom 
of little green bracts. Each consists externally of a 
calyx, composed of six, linear, green sepals (fig. 2. 
a. a.), of equal size, and rather shorter than the petals. 
The latter are also six in number, but very unequal in 
size and dissimilar in form ; the largest (fig. 2. b. and 
fig. 3.) are green, fleshy, wedge-shaped bodies, bor- 
dered with unequal, whitish, gland-like hairs, and 
having at the upper end a crest, consisting of white, 
flat threads, which are broader at the upper than the 
lower end. The smallest petals are roundish, and 
much shorter than their crest-like appendage, which, 
moreover, is made up of much fewer parts than that 
of the largest petals. From within the base of the 
petals there rises a short green stalk (fig. 6. a. and 
fig. 4. a.), called the gynophore, from the top of 
which springs a one-sided, brown, hairy lobe, or disk 
( fig. 4. b. and fig. 6. 6.), hollowed out into a short 
tube at the bottom, where it surrounds the base of the 
ovary, and bearing twelve stamens at the top of the 


tube (fig. 4:.). 


388 LETTER XXIX. 


Before we proceed further, let me detain you a 
moment with the meaning of the word pisk: a term 
that has just occurred. We formerly had it as the 
name of the central part of a compound or rather a 
composite flower. (Vol. I. p. 203.), comprehending all 
the florets which have a tubular structure with an 
equally divided border ; in the present instance it is 
used in a different sense. It means a supernume- 
rary organ, different from the stamens or petals, 
and originating at the base of one or other of them. 
Nothing can well be more variable in its nature than 
this disk ; in the Mignonette it is, as you see, a one- 
sided, hairy lobe ; in some plants it is a fleshy ring 
surrounding the ovary; in others a small number of 
glands in the same place; in Black Horehound you 
formerly saw it in the state of a green fleshy base to 
the lobed ovary (Vol. I. Plate XVI. 1. fig. 4. a. and 
6. a.); and in the poppy-flowered Peony you will 
find it constituting a deep purple case, enveloping the 
ovaries, and cut into irregular segments at its edge. 
In all these instances the disk is considered to be in 
reality either corolla, or stamens, in a disguised 
state ; in the example before us, it is to be referred 
to the corolla. 

The ovary of the Mignonette (fig. 6.) is an oblong, 
three-cornered, three-horned, one-celled case, having 
its horns terminated by the stigmas, and its ovules 
arranged in triple rows upon three narrow placente 
(fig. 7. a. a.), corresponding with the principal angles 
of the ovary. If viewed witha magnifying glass, the 


THE MIGNONETTE TRIBE. 39 


angles will be found covered with a cold-grey frost, of 
an extremely pretty appearance. 

The seed-yessel of the Mignonette is an oblong 
brown case (fig. 8.), opening at the point into a trian- 
gular passage, through which the seeds readily fall 
out. ‘The seeds (fig. 9.) are brown, warted, kidney- 
shaped bodies, attached by the middle of their con- 
cave side (fig. 9. a.), and contain an embryo, which is 
curved like the seed itself (fig. 10.). 

Besides Mignonette, the genus Reseda contains 
many other species; they are all, however, confined, 
when cultivated, to Botanic Gardens ; for they are but 
little superior in external appearance to the Mignonette 
itself, and they have none of its fragrance. Two of 
the species are wild in Great Britain, and one of 
them (Reseda luteola), the dyer’s weld, possesses the 
property of imparting a beautiful yellow colour to 
lmen and wool. 

You have remarked, that in Mignonette the ovules 
grow to the shell of the ovary, and not to the middle ; 
a similar circumstance has been pointed out to you in 
the tribes of the Violet, the Poppy, the Passion- 
flower, and others, formerly brought under your 
notice. I think I have somewhere already told you 
that the place where the ovules adhere to the ovary is 
called the placenta; and that the manner in which they 
adhere is hence called their placentation ; let me now 
add, that when the placente are upon the shell of the 
ovary, as in this and the other instances already alluded 
to, the placentation is technically called parietal; I 
mention this, because the latter term is of such com- 


40 LETTER (xe 


mon occurrence that Botanists are obliged to have 
recourse to it frequently. You will understand this 
readily enough if you compare with each other Plates 
I..2. figs 6.53) 1Vi 2. fig. 6.53 andsVe YT. figs 
Should you now seek to discover some tribe of plants 
with which the Mignonette can be identified, you 
would undoubtedly fail, for it is extremely unlike 
any of those hitherto mentioned to you by me. On 
this account it forms a group by itself, called Rese- 
dace, or the MicNonETTE TRIBE. ‘There are, how- 
ever, plants allied to it by many important characters, 
the most interesting bemg what are popularly called 
Capers. We will now investigate their structure. 


The Carer ‘Trine (Capparidacee), may be con- 
sidered as represented by that species which furnishes 
the Capers sold by the Italian oil-men. ‘This plant 
(Capparis spinosa, Plate XXIX. 2.) inhabits the 
chalk and volcanic rocks of the South of Italy and 
Sicily, especially those within the influence of the sea ; 
there it enjoys a bright warm summer and a mild and 
equable winter, and trailing over the precipices that it 
inhabits, gives to the wild and rugged scenery a sum- 
mer charm which the Myrtle and the Rock-rose in vain 
attempt to emulate. Wherever a similar climate can be 
found, the Caper bush is transferred for cultivation, 
on account of the mild, agreeably pungent properties 
of its flower-buds. It is these which form the Capers 
of the shops, their quality depending upon the age at 
which they have been collected; the youngest, and con- 
sequently the smallest, forming samples of the: best, 


THE CAPER TRIBE. 41 


and the largest and oldest of the worst quality. But 
let us examine the Caper plant more systematically. 
It is an undershrub, with long, smooth, shining, 
trailing, purple branches, bearing alternate, ovate, flat, 
dull green leaves, edged with purple, and placed upon 
a short purple stalk. At the base of the stalk, on 
each side, is a short straight spine, supposed to be a 
disguised stipule. From the axils of the leaves the 
flowers (fig. 1.) grow singly, on hard, smooth, purple 
stalks. They have four, spreading, oblong, obtuse, 
concave sepals ; four white petals, notched at the end, 
downy at their base, and so placed that two adhere to 
each other, as if really united; there is a large number 
of stamens growing from the base of a central column, 
with thread-shaped filaments ; and, finally, the ovary 
(fig. 1. 6.) is an oval purple case, growing on the end 
of a long cylindrical gynophore (fig. 1. a.). The 
interior of the ovary (fig. 5.) is very like that of the 
poppy (Plate I. 2. fig. 6.), having several plates 
covered with ovules, projecting from the shell, and not 
meeting in the middle: the placentation being there- 
fore parietal. ‘The stigma is a roundish, sessile, pur- 
ple tip to the ovary (fig. 4.d.). At the base of the 
gynophore, on one side of a sort of cushion that 
bears the stamens, is a small, ovate, convex, gland-like 
disk (fig. 4. a.). When the fruit is ripe it becomes 
an oblong, knobby body (fig. 6.), filled with firm pulp, 
within which the seeds lie in as many rows as there 
previously were placentee. The seeds themselves are 
very like those of Mignonette, only smooth, not warted. 
I have already said that the Capers of the shops are 


42 LETTER “XxX 


the unexpanded flower-buds of this plant (fig. 2.). 
If you cut them across you will find their appearance 
in a transverse section sufficiently curious. ‘They 
consist of several green leaves wrapped one over the 
other (fig. 3.), and enclosed within a couple of concave 
bracts; within these he the petals, enwrapping the 
stamens, which are closely packed round either the 
gynophore or the ovary. 

Our gardens contain nothing included in the same 
group as the Caper, except certaimm annuals called 
Cleomes, a few of which have gay starry flowers, and 
long stamens, far less numerous than in the Caper itself. 

It is obvious that this plant accords with the Mig- 
nonette tribe more than any others yet examined. It 
has, independently of its polypetalous flowers, a con- 
siderable number of stamens, a disk adhering to the 
part in which the stamens originate, a gynophore on 
which the ovary is elevated, an ovary with parietal 
placentation, and kidney-shaped seeds, with a curved 
dicotyledonous embryo. These circumstances un- 
doubtedly indicate a near alliance between the Caper 
and Mignonette, and, in reality, the general opinion 
now seems to be in favour of their standing next each 
other, only in distinct groups. 

With regard to Cleomes, I must refer you to the 
Hothouse for information concerning them. They 
are considered to stand, as it were, between the Caper 
tribe and the Cruciferous tribe (Vol. I. p. 55.) ; con- 
necting, in a very conspicuous manner, plants that 
otherwise would not have been readily brought near 


each other. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXIX. 


I. Tue Micnonette Tripe.—l. A few flowers of Mignonette 
( Reseda odorata). —2. A perfect flower magnified ; a a sepals; 6 the 
upper and larger petals, with their crested appendages. —3. One of the 
upper petals still more magnified.—4. A flower with its sepals and 
petals cut off, shewing at a the gynophore, and at 6 the disk, with 
the stamens and ovary within them —5. The upper end of a filament, 
with its anther.—6. A view of the young ovary, when the petals 
and stamens have dropped off; athe gynophore, 6 the disk.—7. 
A transverse section of the ovary, with the ovules adhering in triple 
rows to the three parietal placentea.—8. A ripe fruit, opening by a tri- 
angular passage, 4, at the apex, and having the remains of the disk, a, 
adhering to its base.—9. A ripe seed; a the scar.—]0. A longitudinal 
section of the same, with the dicotyledonous embryo; a the scar. 

I]. Toe Caper Trise.— 1. A twig of the prickly Caper 
(Capparis spinosa) in flower; a the gynophore, 6 the ovary, cc the 
spiny stipules.—2. A young flower-bud, in the state in which it is 
gathered for pickling.—3. A transverse section of the samc, magnified. 
—4. A view of a the disk, 5 the gynophore, ¢ the ovary, d the stigma, 
e the receptacle of the stamens magnified.—5. A transverse section of 
the ovary, with the ovules adhering to the plate-like parietal placenta. 
—6. A portion of a ripe fruit cut across—7. A ripe seed; a the scar. 


—8. An embryo extracted from the seed. 


LETTER XXX. 


THE CACTUS TRIBE—THE GOURD TRIBE. 


wees. 


PGE C. XOXEXG 


rerercece. 


Bestpes the plants spoken of in my last letter, 
there are several others whose placentation is also 
parietal (see page 39.), and it will be better, before we 
proceed to other subjects, to examine some of them ; 
especially two which are of very common occurrence. 

The plants called Cactuses, which, from the profu- 
sion of large richly-coloured flowers that some species 
are loaded with, have given to our conservatories an 
air of magnificence which was quite unknown till of 
late years, constitute the small group of Cactacee. The 
species are in all cases succulent, and with the single 
exception of the Pereskias, destitute of leaves, in 
whose room the stem is either green and leaf-like, or 
at least covered over with a green integument, which 
has the structure of the pulpy part of a leaf, and like 
it executes the office of respiration. You will form a 
general idea of this highly curious natural order 
when you are told that the plants called Indian Figs 
(Opuntia), with their prickly, jomted, flattened stems, 
on which the Cochineal insect feeds; 7orch-thistles 
(various species of Cereus), whose angular trunks rise 
erect and singly into the air, like fantastic vegetable 


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THE CACTUS TRIBE. 45 


columns ; creeping Cereuses, with their long pendent 
branches, which might be taken for the tails of some 
animal, if it were not for the gay, rose-coloured flowers 
they push out from time to time; and all the strange 
races of Melon-thistles (Melocacti), Porcupine-tlustles 
(Echinocacti), and Hedge-hog thistles (Mammillarias), 
whose names sufficiently attest their extraordinary 
appearance—I say, you will form a clear general idea 
of this curious Cactus tribe, when you have collected 
in your mind all the remarkable plants that have now 
been named ; and I cannot anticipate any difficulty in 
your doing so, because they are among the commonest 
plants that inhabit greenhouses. All these species 
are destitute of true leaves, except when they are first 
beginning to grow. Just at that time they do indeed 
produce little succulent bodies, which we know to be 
rudiments of leaves; but such parts drop off soon 
after they are born, and the only representatives they 
leave behind are the stiff, hooked spines, with which so 
many species are covered. ‘The parts which are mis- 
taken for leaves in the Indian fig, or some of the more 
common species of Cereus, are only the flattened joints 
of the stem. 

It would be difficult to find any race of plants, 
where a more obvious connection exists between the 
manner in which they are constructed and the situa- 
tions it is their destmy to live in. The greater 
number grow in hot, dry, rocky places, where they 
are exposed for many months in the year to the 
fiercest beams of a tropical sun, without a possibility 
of obtaining from the parched and hardened soil, 


4.6 LETTER XXX. 


more than the most scanty supply of necessary food. 
Under such circumstances plants of an ordinary struc- 
ture would perish ; but Cactuses have a special power 
of resistmg heat and drought, and, like the Camel, 
they carry with them a supply of water for many, not 
days but, months. It usually happens that once a 
year, during several weeks at least, the air that sur- 
rounds them is saturated with moisture, and the soil 
they live in is drenched by ceaseless rains. At this 
time they grow fast, all the little cavities in their 
tissue, of which there are countless millions, are filled 
with liquid nourishment, and they may be literally 
said to gorge themselves with food. ‘Then, when the 
rains cease, and the air dries up, and the Spirit of the 
desert reassumes his witherme dominion over their 
climate, Cactuses are in the most robust health, and 
their cells are abundantly filled with provision against 
scarcity. But these supplies would be quickly con- 
sumed by plants only protected by a thin cuticle, and 
having their surface pierced by millions of breathing 
pores, all actively exhaling the evaporable matter that 
lies beneath them, and an early death would be the 
inevitable result. Such, indeed, is the lot of all the 
gay companions of the Cactus, which surrounded it 
during the season of feasting and prosperity, and to 
which Nature has given no special means of enduring 
the hardships to which their lot exposes them; a few 
days or weeks suffice to sweep their forms from the 
face of the creation ; their leaves rapidly consume the 
stores deposited in the stems, their stems turn in vain 
to the roots for a renewed supply, for after but a little 


THE CACTUS TRIBE. 47 


while the arid earth has nothing to part with, and then 
the leaves wither and fall off, the stems shrink up and 
crack with the dry heat, and the roots themselves, in 
many cases, follow the same fate. With Cactuses this 
is different ; they have so tough and thick a hide that 
what liquid substances they contain can only pass 
through it in minute quantities ; the breathing pores 
of their surface are comparatively few, and so small as 
to act with extreme slowness when the air is dry ; so 
that in proportion to the aridity of the air, and the 
heat to which such plants are exposed, is their reluct- 
ance to part with the food they contain. ‘They digest 
and re-digest it, with extreme slowness, and may be 
truly said to live upon themselves during all those 
months when they cannot feed upon the soil or the 
atmosphere. 

This statement applies more particularly to the 
species consisting of solid fleshy masses, like the 
Melon-thistles, the Hedgehog-thistles, and the like ; 
but requires to be modified with reference to the 
thinner-stemmed species, such as Cactus speciosus, 
. Speciosissimus, and truncatus ; of them it is equally 
true, but im a less degree. 

The property which the Cactuses thus possess of 
living where few other plants can exist, sometimes 
renders them of great utility to man. On Mount 
Etna, for instance, and its volcanic fields, it 1s the 
Indian Fig (Opuntia) which the Sicilians employ to 
render such desolate regions susceptible of cultivation. 
' This plant readily strikes into the fissures of the lava, 
and soon, by extending the ramifications of its roots 


4S LETTER UXXX. 


into every crevice of the stone, and bursting the 
largest blocks asunder by their gradual increase, makes 
it capable of being worked, 

You will now be curious to know by what botanical 
characters these interesting plants are certainly known. 
To the tufted spines that are scattered over the stem, 
instead of leaves, I have already adverted. The 
flowers are the next part for us to study; and here 
you are at last introduced to the most highly developed, 
the most complicated, the largest, and the most richly 
coloured, or purely colourless, of all the blossoms in 
the Vegetable Kingdom. ‘The Showy Cactus (Cereus 
speciosus) is at hand; by no means the handsomest or 
the largest of this glorious tribe, but one that shews 
as well as any other the nature of its organization 
(Plate XXX.). In the flower of this species, you will 
seek in vain for a distinction between the calyx and 
corolla. It has a cylindrical stalk (fig. 1.), the lower 
part of which (a.) is hollowed out for the ovary, and 
the upper portion covered with small scale-like rose- 
coloured bracts(a. a.), which gradually pass into large, 
thin, delicate leaves of the same colour, unfolding tier 
upon tier from within each other, and adhering by 
their lower ends, till a fleshy firm tube (fig. 4. 6. & 
fig. 2. a.) is produced. About the middle of this 
tube, just where it swells out and ceases to be cylin- 
drical (fig. 4. c.), springs forth a multitude of slen- 
der stamens (fig. 2. b.), placed row within row upon 
the tube, and forming a long, white, filamentous cylin- 
der or cone. ‘The ovary is, as you have already been 
told, a cavity in the bottom of the apparent stalk of 


THE CACTUS TRIBE. 4.9 


the flower (fig. 4. a.); it contains a great number of 
young seeds, attached to the lining of the cavity, in 
eight rows, or placentz, each hanging from the point 
of a long slender thread (fig. 5.). The style rises 
like a graceful column (fig. 4. d.), from the top of the 
ovary, and after reaching a little beyond the limb of 
the anthers, divides into eight, short, narrow, fringed 
arms, forming a beautiful star of eight rays. After a 
few days, or even hours, all this gorgeous panoply fades 
away, the stamens wither, the starry stigma closes its 
rays, and the style, no longer able to support it, curves 
downwards beneath its weight ; the floral leaves droop, 
their colours become deadened, their firmness and elas- 
ticity are replaced by a soft and slimy ooze, and quickly 
afterwards the whole of this once lovely apparatus is 
thrown off by the ovary, which enlarges, becomes pulpy, 
acquires a new colour, matures its small brown seeds, 
and finally becomes a fruit so similar to that of a 
Gooseberry, that for a long time the latter and the 
Cactus were thought to be related. Its seeds contain 
an embryo (fig. 6. & 7.) coiled up in the shell, which 
_ accurately fits it, and having a long slender radicle, 
with two distinct cotyledons. ‘This kind of structure, 
however, is not universal in the Cactus Tribe. It 
sometimes happens that the embryo is straight, and 
almost destitute of cotyledons, their presence being 
only indicated by a little notch in the end of the 
embryo (fig. 10. 11.).. This unusual circumstance is 
interesting, as shewing that the habit of growing 
without leaves is not confined to the stem, but is to be 
met with, in some species, even in the embryo itself. 
ot. 11. E 


50 LETTER XXX. 


I have said that the fruit of the Cactus bears a 
strong resemblance to a Gooseberry ; the similarity is 
not confined to the appearance, but extends to the 
flavour, texture, and quality. So wholesome, indeed, is 
the Cactus fruit, that it is an important object of cul- 
tivation in some countries. On Aétna, for example, the 
large cooling fruits of the Indian Fig are sold in con- 
siderable quantity, and some of the varieties are found 
of great excellence. In the West Indies, and South 
America, Cactus fruit is often consumed as Goose- 
berries. 

Perhaps there are few plants more resplendently beau- 
tiful than the Showy Cactus, when covered, as it often is, 
with hundreds of its large rosy blossoms. But there 
are many species far more magnificent in their indi- 
vidual flowers ; as for instance, all those called night- 
blowing Cereuses (C. grandiflorus, triangularis, Lan- 
ceanus, Napoleonis), with their large trumpet-shaped 
tubes, cut at the border into starry segments of the 
most dazzling white, the purity of which is mcreased 
by the tassel of pale yellow stamens that occupies 
their centre, and also by the extraordinary contrast of 
the beautiful flowers,and the misshapen, dingy, snake- 
like, leafless stems from which they spring. Many of 
the Porcupine thistles too, especially Echimocactus 
Kyriesii, partake of the same noble features ; and as 
they have the property of flowering by day, they are 
the more valued as well as better known. 

These particulars will make you as familiar with the 
Botanical history of Cactuses, as you perhaps already 
are with their general properties. 


THE GOURD TRIBE. 51 


It may seem like a paradox at once to proceed from 
such plants as these, to Melons, Gourds, and Cucum- 
bers, because of their natural affinity, especially if 
Bryony (Bryonia dioica, Plate XXX. 2.) be taken by 
way of illustration. And yet such is the course | 
must follow; for I know of no plants allied to Cactuses 
in so many respects as the Gourp Tribe is. This will 
be more evident presently. 

That the various kinds of Gourd, Vegetable Mar- 
row, Squash, and the Melon, Water Melon, and Cu- 
cumber, are all combined by characters of the strictest 
resemblance, requires no proof. Nor indeed is it pos- 
sible to doubt that the Bryony (Plate XXX. 2.) also 
appertains to the smae group. Ishall leave you to ex- 
amine the former without my assistance; the last 
mentioned plant deserves a detailed notice. You are, 
perhaps, aware that it is a perennial plant, with a 
large fleshy poisonous root, and rough stems, that 
rapidly extend over bushes and hedges, adhering firmly 
to the branches by means of its tough aud numerous 
tendrils. In Norfolk, Suffolk, and many other parts 
of England, it is abundant in hedge-rows, half smother- 
ing the bushes it clings to, and reddening all the lanes 
with its clusters of scarlet berries. 

It bears the rough, pale yellow, toothed leaves of 
the Gourd, but they are differently lobed and formed, 
for they have about five deep divisions, of which that 
in the middle is rather longer than those at the sides, 
while the lowest are often two-lobed, and always 
turned back upon the stalk, so as to give the leaf 
what is called a heart-shaped base. ‘The flowers are 


E 2 


52 LETTER XXX: 


in the technical terms of Botanists called dicecious ; 
that is to say, those which contain the ovary and 
stigma grow on one plant, and those with the stamens 
grow on another plant. I must speak to you of these 
two separately. 

The flowers with stamens (Plate XXX. 2. fig. 1.) 
have a green cupped calyx, with five little teeth (fig. 1. 
a. a.), and a light-green strongly veined corolla of five 
petals, forming part with the calyx so completely, that 
the whole has the appearance of one five-lobed calyx. 
The stamens are five in number ( fig. 4.), they have no 
filament, but consist of a fleshy, lobed, or smuous con- 
nective (fig. 4. b.), bordered by the narrow pollen- 
bearing cells of the anther, which are separated from 
the connective by a glittering row of little prominent 
glands, placed like a fairy necklace. Ovary there is 
none. 

The flowers with a pistil, so far as the calyx and 
corolla are concerned, are like those containing the 
stamens, only smaller, and in closer clusters, with 
shorter stalks (fig. 2.). They do not contain a trace 
of stamens, but have an inferior, dark green, round, 
ovary (fig. 6. a.), ending in a short, stiff, round style, 
divided into three cushion-shaped stigmas (_fig. 6. d.). 
When opened, the ovary contains some ovules, attached 
in double rows to three parietal placente (see p. 39), 
and is nearly filled up by a firm fleshy substance (fig. 
7.). The fruit becomes a round, scarlet, pulpy berry 
( fig. 3.), containing two or three flat, brown, hard 
seeds (fig. 8. 9.). 


If you compare what has now been described with 


THE GOURD TRIBE. Jo 


the structure of a Gourd, you will find that the princi- 
pal differences are as follows. The Gourd has larger 
leaves and flowers, the latter being yellow; the sterile 
and fertile flowers both grow on the same plant ; 
the anthers adhere together a little, and stand parallel 
with each other ; the stigmas are two-lobed ; and 
the fruit is a large seed-vessel, pulpy inside, but 
having a hard rind externally, and containing a great 
multitude of seeds. And if you examine others o 
the plants already named, you will see that the dif- 
ferences are of a similar description. 

The most curious plants of the Gourd Tribe are 
the Bottle Gourd (Cucurbita lagenaria), which is 
fashioned like a flask, and the inside being removed is 
actually used as a water bottle, the Snake Cucumber 
(Momordica cylindrica), whose slender cucumber-like 
fruits are many feet long, and curved and twisted like 
a vegetable snake, and the Spirting Cucumber (Mo- 
mordica Elaterium), the seeds of which are ejected 
with violence when the fruit-stalk is suddenly removed. 

You will now say, “I perceive the resemblance 
between all the plants you have named to me, and I 
understand their structure, but how do you show an 
affinity between the Gourd Tribe and the Cactus 
Tribe?” That is the next point. 

In the first place, remember that the flowers of 
Cactuses are not always large and manifold in struc- 
ture, but sometimes very small, and the parts far from 
numerous ; secondly, that, as I have long since said 
(Vol. I. p. 105), the succulent character of Cactuses 
is not peculiar, but common to them with many others, 


O+4 LETTER KKK. 


and is hardly a mark of affinity, but rather a specific 
quality; thirdly, that many Cactuses are climbing 
plants, although they have no tendrils. ‘These points 
being settled, remark in the next place, that both Cac- 
tuses and Gourds have succulent fruit; that their seeds 
are numerous, and attached to the sides of the fruit ; 
that they have no albumen ; and that there is hardly 
more difference between the calyx and corolla of the 
one than of the other; that is to say, that they are in 
both cases very similar to each other in appearance ; 
moreover, that in each tribe the stamens grow from 
the sides of the calyx-tube, and the ovary is inferior. 
These resemblances are sufficient to show that the two 
tribes are allied to each other in no very distant degree, 
although they do not prove them to stand in imme- 
diate contact. But I have not asserted that such was 
the case; in fact, the most direct affinity of the 
Gourd is perhaps with the Passion-flower Tribe, as has 
been stated on a former occasion (Vol. I. p. 71.). 
From those plants, however, the Gourd ‘Tribe deviates 
in many important particulars, so that, in reality, 
there is no known natural assemblage that they im- 
mediately impinge upon. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXX. 


I. Toe Cactus Trise.—1. A flower of Cereus speciosus, the na- 
tural size; a a the bracts; 45 the ovary.—2. The stamens, magnified, 
with a portion of the tube of the flower at a; 6 the filaments; ¢ the 
starry stigma.—3. An anther, with a portion of a filament adhering to 


it—4. A section of a part of the tube of a flower, with the ovary at a, 


dS 


the tube at 4, the insertion of the stamens at c, and the base of the style 
at d.—5. A transverse section of the ovary, very much magnified, 
shewing the parietal placentation—6. A seed of an Opuntia—7. The 
embryo of the same.—8. Ripe fruit of a Mammillaria.—9. A seed.— 
10. A section of the same.—11. An embryo, with a notch at the end 
dividing the two cotyledons. 

II. Tue Gourp Trise.—1l. A stamen-bearing twig of Bryony 
(Bryonia dioica) —2. A pistil-bearing twig of the same.—3. The ripe 
fruit.—4, A portion of the cup of a stamen-bearing flower, magnified ; 
a the cup; } asingle stamen; c a double stamen.—5. A bird's eye 
view of the lower part of a stamen-bearing flower, with a single anther 
at a, and two double ones at bb.—6. A portion of a pistil-bearing 
flower; b calyx; ec corolla; d style; a ovary.—7, A transverse section 
of the ovary.—8. A seed.—9. A section of the latter, with the embryo. 


LETTER XXXI. 


THE BEGONIA TRIBE—THE FIG-MARIGOLD TRIBE— 
HYGROMETRICAL PHENOMENA CONNECTED WITH 
THE DISPERSION OF SEEDS. 


eerereee ee nrerern 


Plate XX XI. 


POPPA ARO LOLOL OOD EL OLE OTE 


Tuere are few collections in which some one or 
other of the plants called Begonias are not found. 
They are not, however, cultivated so much for the sake 
of their flowers, as of their leaves, the deep rich colours 
of which, especially their crimson, is unrivalled in the 
vegetable world. These plants have in all cases one 
half of the leaf much smaller than the other, so that at 
their base they often have something the appearance of 
ahuman ear. They have a pair of large stipules at the 
foot of each petiole, and all the parts of vegetation 
are particularly tender and brittle. They grow natu- 
rally in damp tropical woods, often on rocks, or in the 
rifts of trees, and are among the most certain signs 
of a hot damp climate. 

It is a matter of no little difficulty to know where to 
class them, or with what plants they are most naturally 
related; indeed, after all the consideration that 
Botanists have given them, the subject is still unsettled. 
Why this is so, you will understand, as soon as I have 
explained to you the structure of the fructification of 
Begonia. 


Let the subject of examination be the commonest 


iif 


es Begenta 


4 ee dy Ma vegeld ie 


THE BEGONIA TRIBE. oy 


of all the species, the ¢wo-coloured Begona(B. discolor, 
Plate XXXI. 1.). The flowers of this plant grow in 
a kind of cyme, at the ends of the branches; each of 
the ramifications of the cyme has a pair of concave sti- 
pules at the base ( fig.1.); the flowersstand upon slender 
flesh-coloured stalks, and are partly sterile, partly fertile. 

The sterile flowers consist of two larger obtuse pink 
sepals (fig. 1. 6.), and two petals of the same colour. 
In their centre you have a round ball of anthers, the 
filaments of which are united into a common stalk (fig. 
1. ¢.). The anthers are club-shaped, fleshy, yellow 
bodies ( fig.2.), having a curved pollen-cell on each side. 

The fertile flowers (fig. 1. a. & jig. 4.) have a 
calyx and corolla like those of the others, only the 
latter has frequently but one petal. Beneath the calyx 
is a fleshy thick part, having three unequal wings ( fig. 
4.), divided into three cells internally (fig. 6.), with 
two plates or placente, covered with minute ovules, in 
each cell. Of course this part is the ovary; it is 
terminated by three stigmas, each of which ( fig. 5.) 
has two twisted hairy lobes. 

The fruit, when ripe, is a thin brown case, beauti- 
fully marked with deeper coloured veins, and having 
three wings, of which one is very much larger than the 
others (fig. 7.). It contains a multitude of small seeds 
(fig. 8.) of an oblong form, and covered with a net- 
work, the meshes of which are disposed with wonder- 
ful regularity; those at the two ends being always 
contracted and small, while the intermediate ones are 
long, with parallel sides; so that if a slice were cut 
off the lower end, the remainder would have quite the 
appearance of a gothic church window. The embryo, 


58 LETTER AXESI. 


which lies in the seed, is an oblong succulent mass, 
half split into two parts (fig. 9.). 

In attempting to fix the natural relationship of 
Begonia to other plants, we need not occupy ourselves 
with the little resemblances it may bear to this group, 
or that, in one or two particulars. But, as should be 
done in all such cases, I will beg you to confine your 
attention to its more striking peculiarities, and to 
their conformity with what can be found elsewhere. 
Now what are its more striking peculiarities? They 
may be collected under several heads; the stamens 
and pistils are in different flowers; the stigmas are 
two-lobed ; the stamens are all combined into a single 
column; and the anthers have a remarkably thick 
connective ; the calyx and corolla are in twos; that 
is, there are two sepals and two petals ; and the ovary 
is inferior, three-celled, with many-seeded double 
placentee. 

Many groups of plants can be found, in which 
some one of these circumstances equally exists, but it 
is only when two at least occur, that a comparison can 
be usefully instituted. For example, the Cactus Tribe 
has a many-seeded inferior ovary ; the Myrtle Tribe, in 
many cases, a three-celled inferior ovary ; the Mallow 
Tribe, the stamens combined into a column; the 
Maple Tribe, a winged fruit; and so on; but in all 
these cases the resemblance can scarcely be traced 
further. 

The natural assemblages in which the greatest 
number of points of resemblance can be found with 
Begonias, are the Euphorbia Tribe, to be examined 
hereafter, the Gourd Tribe, the Evening Primrose 


GONIA TRIBE. 


Tribe, and the Buckwheat Tribe. 


3 
4 
“4 


B 


THE 


For facility of com- 


ll make a little table, in which the most 


remarkable characters of these natural orders shall be 


parison, we wi 


egonia. 


placed side by side with what exists in B 


BEGoniA TRIBE. 


Leaves alternate 
Large membranous 
stipules 
Stamens & pistils 
in different tone | 
ers = : 
Stigmas two-lobed 
Stigmas aa 
in a column 
Anthers with avery 
thick connective 
Calyx and corolla 
a AyO g : 
Ovary inferior . 
Ovary three-winged 
Ovary three-celled 
Double placente . 
Seeds numerous . . 
Albumen  altoge- U 
ther wanting 5 


Points of agreement 


Points of disagreement 


EvueuHorsiA TRIBE. 


Yes. 
Yes. 
Yes. 


Sometimes. 


Sometimes. 


No. 


Sometimes. 


Sometimes. 
Yes. 


No. 


Yes. 
No 

Three Placente. 
Yes. 


Yes. 


Yes. 


EVENING 


BucKWHEAT TRIBE. 
PRIMROSE TRIBE. © 


Sometimes. Yes, 
No. Yes 
No. No. 
No. No. 
No. No. 
No. No. | 
Sometimes. No. 
Yes, No. 
No. Yes. 
No. No. 
No. No. 
Yes. No. 
Yes. No. | 
5 3 
8 10 


60 LETTER XXXI. 


This shews you that it is to the Gourd Tribe that 
Begonias have the nearest relation: corresponding in 
ten important characters out of thirteen, and that of the 
orders thus brought into view, the weakest affinity is 
with the Buckwheat Tribe, or only as three to thirteen, 
and of those three characters, two are of the lowest 
importance. Indeed, I should not have thought it 
worth including the latter in the comparison, if it had 
not been the opinion of the learned Jussieu, that Be- 
gonias and the Buckwheats are related. 

While, however, after an investigation of this na- 
ture, it is difficult to refuse assent to the placing Be- 
gonias and the Gourds near each other in the sys- 
tem, it is nevertheless obvious enough, that they are 
not so closely allied, as to deserve being considered 
contiguous groups; and it is highly probable that 
plants have still to be discovered, of an intermediate 
character, by means of which the two assemblages 
will be connected. 


Before I dismiss the subject of Cactuses, and the 
orders allied to them, it is necessary that I should say 
a few words upon the Fic-Maricoip Tribe, an as- 
semblage of plants of remarkable beauty, although but 
little cultivated now, in consequence of the fashion for 
Cape plants haying gone by. ‘The Tribe is represented 
by a genus called Mesembryanthemum, consisting of 
two or three hundred species, and to this my remarks 
will be confined. The principal part of the genus Fig- 
Marigold, or Mesembryanthemum, consists of shrubs 
inhabiting rocks and dry plains in the most arid parts 


FIG-MARIGOLD TRIBE. 61 


of the southern extremity of Africa; they have fleshy 
leaves, often of most singular forms, and partake very 
much of that power of enduring drought, which, as 
you have seen, is one of the striking characters of Cac- 
tuses. Some of their leaves have a cylindrical form, 
and are terminated by a short tuft of bristles; in 
others, the leaves are curved like a Turkish scymitar, 
or fashioned like an axe; in some, they are rounded, so 
as to look like green pebbles collected imto masses ; 
and in several they are bordered by long stiff teeth-like 
fringes, and curve together so as to resemble the half- 
open jaw of some savage animal, whence the strange 
names of ‘Tiger-chap, Dog-chap, Wolf-chap, Mouse- 
chap, and so on, by which different species are dis- 
tinguished. Moreover, in one species, not a Cape 
plant, but an inhabitant of the North of Africa, the 
whole surface of the leaves and stems is raised into 
minute transparent blisters, so that the plant has the 
appearance of one of those beautiful French preserved 
fruits, which glitter all over with crystals of sugar ; 
this species is known in the gardens by the appro- 
priate name of Jce-plant (Mesembryanthemum crystal- 
linum). 

With regard to the fructification of this Tribe, it 
matters little what species we select. Here is one 
called in the gardens Villet’s Fig-Marigold, nearly 
allied to M. acinaciforme, or the Scymitar-leaved 
(Plate XXXI. 2.). It has a succulent calyx of four 
or five unequal sepals ( fig. 2.). Its petals are long, 
narrow, numerous, bright rose-colour, and closely 
packed one over the other in several rows (fig. A. £.). 


62 LETTER: XXXI; 


The stamens are numerous, and much shorter than the 
petals; they originate on the outside of a roundish, 
flat, green cushion (fig. 4. a.), that surrounds the 
stigma, and caps the ovary. ‘The latter is inferior, 
containing about eight cells, divided off from each 
other by strong dissepiments, but, what is very re- 
markable, not bearing the ovules at the point where the 
dissepiments come in contact, but producing them from 
the centre of the back of each cell (fig. 4. b.). Hence 
in this species we have the singular instance of a many- 
celled ovary, with true complete dissepiments, and com- 
mon parietal placentation. ‘The stigma is sessile, and 
divided into as many rays as there are cells in the 
ovary. I must now warn you, that, although the spe- 
cies before us has this curious arrangement of the in- 
terior, yet you will not find the same structure in all 
species ; on the contrary, in some, the back of the cell 
simply presents a fleshy hump, from the lower edge of 
which, and the base of the cell, the ovules originate ; 
or, as in most cases, they simply grow from the lower 
part of the inner edge of the cell. 

The latter structure is that of the ripe fruit I send 
you for examination (fig. B. 5.). You will find that 
it divides at the top into five valves, which close up 
when the fruit is wet, and open when dry. Lach of 
its cells contains a considerable number of seeds (fig. 
B. 6.), hanging from long stalks, that grow from the 
lower part of the centre of the fruit. ‘The seeds are 
angular, and tuberculated (fig. 7.), and contain a 
curved embryo, lying on one side of the albumen. 

I have omitted to state, that in this and all the spe- 


FIG-MARIGOLD TRIBE. 63 


cies, the flowers close in the shade, or in dull weather, 
and only expand under bright sunshine. TI scarcely 
know a more interesting sight than in a summer’s day, 
after a storm, to watch a bush of this genus, which 
has thrown its weak trailing arms over a piece of rock, 
and which leans forward to the south, as if to catch 
the earliest influence of the beams it loves so well. 
While the sky is darkened by clouds, all its blossoms 
are shut up so closely, that one would hardly suspect 
the bush of being more than a tuft of leafy branches, 
with some withered or unexpanded blossoms scattered 
over them. But the moment that the bright rays of 
the sun begin to play upon the flowers, the scene 
changes visibly beneath the eye; the petals slowly 
part, and unfold their shining surfaces, of almost 
metallic brilliancy, to the sunbeams, and in a few 
minutes become so many living stars, often of the most 
gorgeous tints, and so entirely hide the leaves, that 
scarcely a trace of them is visible, while the whole 
bush has burst into a blaze of glittering splendour. 
In this case, the phenomenon depends upon a specific 
irritability of the petals, the cause of which is one of 
those inscrutable mysteries that the limited faculties 
of man are incapable of penetrating. But in the fruit 
there is an interesting phenomenon of another kind, the 
cause of which is more easily explained. The seed- 
vessels of the Fig-Marigold, produced, as I have just 
told you, in the sandy deserts of Southern Africa, fall 
off when ripe, and are driven about by the wind. If 
they were to open during the wet season, or in wet 
places, the seeds would fall out and perish, for it is 


64 LETTER XXXI. 


only in a dry soil that they are capable of vegetating. 
Nature, therefore, gives this plant the power, by virtue 
of its hygrometrical quality, of keeping the seed-vessel 
fast shut up while exposed to damp, and it is only 
when it finds itself in a dry station, fit for the dissemi- 
nation of the seeds, that the valves contract and open 
sufficiently to allow the latter to escape. It is impossi- 
ble to imagine a more obvious interposition of Provi 
dence than this is, for securing the preservation of the 
race of the Mesembryanthemums. 

But it is only one out of hundreds, that might be 
adduced to show the evident design that is visible in 
this part of the creation ; and, what is not less curi- 
ous than interesting, where it is necessary for plants 
to disperse their seeds in the damp, nature provides 
for this also, with the most admirable certainty, by 
giving the valves of the seed-vessel the power of 
opening in humidity ; and so employing the same kind 
of power, that of hygrometrical action, for two opposite 
purposes. ‘Thus, to use the words of the learned M. 
De Candolle, the Evening Primroses open the valves of 
their pods in wet weather, and close them when dry. 
This circumstance is probably connected with the 
manner of life of these plants, which naturally flourish 
in swampy places, and require to sow their seeds 
when the weather is wet. ‘This notion is confirmed 
by the history of another plant having the same pro- 
perty, namely, that singular Eastern herb, known 
under the strange name of Hose of Jericho (Anasta- 
tica hierochuntica). This grows in the most arid 
deserts. At the end of its life, and in consequence 


= 


THE FIG-MARIGOLD TRIBE. 65 


of drought, its texture becomes almost woody, its 
branches curve up into a sort of ball, the valves of 
its pods are closed, and the plant holds to the soil by 
nothing but a root without fibres. In this state, the 
wind, always so powerful on plains of sand, tears up 
the dry ball, and rolls it upon the desert. If in the 
course of its violent transmission the ball is thrown 
upon a pool of water, then humidity is promptly ab- 
sorbed by the woody tissue, the branches unfold, 
and the seed-vessels open; the seeds, which, if they 
had been dropped upon the dry sand, would never have 
germinated, sow themselves naturally in the moist 
soil, where they are sure to develope, and the young 
brood to be nourished. And in this way, a plant, to 
which the most silly superstition has given celebrity, 
really presents a truly marvellous phenomenon in its 
organization. Specimens of this curious production are 
sometimes brought from Palestine, where it is called 
Kaf Maryam, and, although they may be many years 
old, will, if placed in water, start, as it were, from their 
slumbers, stretch out their arms, straighten their 
leaves, and assume all the appearance of plants sud- 
denly raised from the dead. 

With regard to the affinities of the Fig-Marigold 
Tribe, it is obvious that generally they are with all the 
assemblages having both petals and sepals, many sta- 
mens, and an inferior ovary; such, for instance, as the 
Myrtle Tribe, and the Cactus Tribe ; but it is espe- 
cially with the latter that its consanguinity is most 
near; and it is not a little remarkable, that in the 
manner in which its fruit is constructed, and the ovules 

VOL. Il. F 


66 LETTER XXXI. 


developed, it combines in some cases, in the same 
species, as we have seen, two different forms of placen- 
tation: the central and the parietal. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXI. 


I. Toe Beconia Tripe.—l]. The inflorescence of the stained 
Begonia (B. discolor) ; a a fertile flower; bc sterile flowers.—2. A 
side view of an anther, with the cleft through which the pollen escapes. 
—3. A transverse section of the same.—4. A fertile flower.—5, One 
of the twisted two-lobed stigmas.—6. A transverse section of an ovary, 
shewing the three cells, in each of which there is a double placenta 
covered with ovules—7. A ripe seed-vessel.—8. A seed very much 
magnified. —9. The embryo. 

II. Toe Fic-Maricoup Tripe.—A. ]. A flower of Villet’s 
Fig-Marigold (Mesembryanthemum Villeti of the Gardens).—2. Its 
calyx and stamens.—3. A stamen.—4. A longitudinal section of the 
ovary ; @, the insertion of the stamens; b, the parietal placente; c, the 
stigma——B. 5. A ripe fruit of Mesembryanthemum, after Geertner. 
—6. A longitudinal section of it, shewing the manner in which the 
seeds are attached to the bottom of the inner angle of the cells —7. A 
seed.—8. A section of it with the embryo and albumen. 


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LETTER XXXII. 


THE LYTHRUM TRIBE—THE ROCK-ROSE TRIBE— 
MODE IN WHICH THE CONTENTS OF THE POLLEN- 
GRAINS ARE CONVEYED TO THE OVULE. 


PO IAAI A AIRDRIE DD DA BDDDI ODDDD DDD DD 


(Plate XX XT.) 


nee 


Iy marshes, meadows, by the side of ditches, and, 
generally, in wet places, there grows a flower which, if 
it were brought from a distant country, reared in a 
hothouse, cultivated with difficulty, and sold at a great 
price, would be the pride of a collector, and the 
admiration of the crowd that is ever searching for new 
objects of amusement ; for, proudly raising above the 
neighbouring grasses its long leafy rods, loaded with 
purple flowers, it stands confessed the undisputed 
queen of the meadows. But Lythrum—for such is 
its name—is only a wild flower ; it may be had any 
where in autumn for the gathering; it associates with 
the sedge, and the meadow-grass, and ignoble weeds, 
and so, it is neglected, except by the few—are they 
indeed the few ?—who love beauty for its own sake, 
and prize our fair native wild flowers, as much as 
costly strangers, which are only to be reared by wealth 
and skill, and which often owe their charms to the 
adventitious circumstances that surround them. 

This plant has a hairy four-cornered stem, about 

FQ 


68 LETTER XXXII. 


four feet high, rather closely covered with opposite 
lance-shaped leaves, which are always more or less 
hairy, and occasionally, even hoary. As the leaves 
approach the upper end of the stem, they become 
smaller, and at length form in their axils two or three 
flowers, of the following structure. The calyx is tubu- 
lar, and pale green, with a red border ; it has twelve 
strongly marked streaks, or veins, traversing it in a 
nearly parallel direction, and it is divided at the edge 
into twelve little teeth, six of which are short and broad, 
and six much narrower and longer (Plate XXXII. 1. 
fiy. 2.& 3.) The petals are six in number, narrow, 
blunt, crumpled, and light purple (fig. 2.). ‘Twelve 
stamens spring from near the bottom of the calyx, in 
two rows ; one row is shorter than the calyx, the other 
much longer (fig. 3.), and both are curved towards one 
side of the flower. The ovary ( fig. 4.) is superior, and 
has two cells, in each of which are many minute seeds, 
covering a central placenta (fig. 5.) ; the style is slen- 
der, and a little longer than the stamens, in the direc- 
tion of which it is curved; the stigma is a round 
velvety little cushion. When the fruit is ripe, it is 
closely covered by the dried calyx (fig. 6.), and is a 
capsule of two cells opening at the end, and bearing on 
each valve one half of the style (fig. 6. a.). The seeds 
(fig. 7-) are plano-convex, sharp-pointed at the base, 
and contain an embryo without albumen ( fig. 8.). 
This structure is remarkable in many respects ; in 
the first place, the striated calyx, and the square stem, 
both unusual circumstances, are analogous to what we 
find in the Labiate Tribe, which resembles the Ly- 


THE LYTHRUM TRIBE. 69 


thrums in little else; then the seeds, the opposite 
leaves, the stigma, and the habit, are like those of some 
species of the Evening-Primrose Tribe, which differs, 
however, in having an inferior ovary, and in several 
more points; to the Mallow ‘Tribe the Lythrums ap- 
proach in their tubular calyx, crumpled petals, supe- 
rior, many-seeded ovary, and double row of sepals ; but 
their distinct stamens growing from the sides of the 
calyx, not to speak of other differences, prohibit the 
union of Lythrums with that order. 

I will not fatigue you with further inquiries of this 
nature, but leave you to institute what comparisons 
you please between Lythrums and such natural groups 
as you are acquainted with. ‘The result will neces- 
sarily be that they are not to be identified with any. 
Hence, Botanists class them in a distinct set, to 
which the names of Lythracee, Salicariee, or the 
Lyrurum Tries, are given. The great features of the 
assemblage depend upon the plants being, 1. polypeta- 
lous, 2. having a furrowed or striated tubular calyx, 
3. having stamens attached to the sides of the calyx, 
4. a superior ovary, and, 5. numerous seeds without 
albumen. 

In the gardens we have no common plants belonging 
to this order, except species of the genus Lythrum ; but 
among the rarer plants are some that deserve mention. 

In the first place, the Henna or Alkanna, with 
which oriental ladies stain their nails and the tips of 
their fingers a yellowish red colour, 

The Henna that is deeply dyed to make 


The skin relieved appear more fairly fair, 


7OU LETTER /KUKAil: 
isobtained from a bush belonging to the Lythrum tribe; 
for this purpose its leaves are pounded, and made into 
a paste. Botanists call the plant Lawsonia inermis ; 
antiquaries have asserted, without much reason, that it 
is the Gopher plant of Scripture. 

A second object of interest is the beautiful timber 
used by Cabinet-makers under the name of Rose- 
wood. By some this production is assigned to a plant 
called Physocalymna floribunda belonging to the tribe 
before us; but Prince Maximilian of Wied Neuwied 
declares that it is yielded by a Mimosa. 

While speaking of the remarkable plants of the 
Lythrum Tribe, the Lagerstromias must on no account 
be forgotten: Indian and Chinese trees or shrubs, 
bearing a profusion of large purple flowers, in clusters 
of considerable size, and one of them (L. indica), 
at least, nearly hardy i England. 


The Rocx-Rose Tribe (Plate XXXII. 2.) shall 
be the next object of our examination, and most worthy 
of it will it prove, whether the beauty of the species 
belonging to it, or their very extraordinary structure 
be considered. ‘These plants are well known in gar- 
dens, under the names of Cistus or Helianthemum, 
and are either cultivated as evergreen bushes in the 
shrubbery, or are employed to ornament rough 
banks and masses of rock-work, over which they trail 
or spread with great beauty; they are particularly 
useful in places so much exposed to the sun as to be 
too dry in summer for the support of other plants. In 
such situations they grow with vigour, resist severe 


r 


THE ROCK-ROSE TRIBE. /1 


frosts, and all the summer long are every morning 
adorned with an inconceivable profusion of night- 
born blossoms, which drink in with avidity the first 
rays of the sun, but, after a few hours, perish beneath 
his fervid rays. The colours of these blossoms are yel- 
low, or yellow spotted with deep brown, purple, rose- 
colour, white spotted with purple, or the most pure 
and dazzling white. ‘The leaves, moreover, of the 
Cistuses give out a delicious balsamic odour, which, 
in places where the plants are numerous, literally fills 
the air, especially after a shower, with a slight, but 
most agreeable and reviving fragrance. In their native 
countries, particularly in the south of France, Spain, 
and the Islands of the Mediterranean, the Cistuses 
are by far the most lovely objects that Nature has 
planted in the woods, rocks, and other stations they 
inhabit. 

In their foliage they are not sufficiently uniform for 
the leaves to form a part of their distinctive character, 
which in this instance is derived principally from the 
fructification. ‘The purple Rock-Rose (Cistus purpu- 
reus) will give you a good example of it. 

In that species you have a calyx composed of five 
pieces (fig. 2.), which, however, do not exactly forma 
single row or whorl; but, as you may see by tearing 
them off, two (fig. 2. a. a.) grow a very little lower 
down than the three others, which, moreover, are some- 
thing larger and a little paler at the edges; such a 
calyx is said to form a broken whorl. ‘The corolla ( fig. 
1.) consists of five equal purple petals, which, from the 
manner in which they are packed up within the bud, 


rk: LETTER? KI. 


have a crumpled appearance when the flower unfolds. 
A great many stamens, much shorter than the petals, 
grow in a ring from below the ovary (fig. 2.). The 
ovary itself ( fig. 3.) is superior, with five cells, m each 
of which are many ovules, rising upwards upon slen- 
der curved stalks, and pointing towards the top of the 
cell. Each ovule is egg-shaped, and has a perforation, 
called a foramen, at its point (fig. 5. a.). ‘The style 
is taper, and rather thicker at the upper than the lower 
end; the stigma (fig. 3.) is a convex undivided space, 
abruptly terminating the style, and bordered by a deli- 
cate fringe of hairs. 

When the seed-vessel of this plant is ripe, it is en- 
closed within the calyx, grown larger, harder, and 
deep brown (fig. 6.). It consists (fig. 7.) of five 
boat-shaped valves (a. a.), along the middle of each 
of which passes a ridge that was, in the ovary, a dis- 
sepiment, and to which the numerous seeds adhere. 
Theseeds are little, smooth, stalked, heart-shaped bodies 
( fig. 8.), pointed at the upper end, and containing an 
embryo, coiled up in the most curiously careful man- 
ner (fig. 9.) ; the embryo itself is imbedded in a small 
quantity of albumen, and, contrary to what usually 
occurs in other plants, the radicle is placed next the 
point of the seed (fig 9. a.). 

Such are not only the characters of the Purple Rock- 
Rose, but also in a great measure of the whole tribe. 
The common genera differ from each other, chiefly in 
little points, that im no way interfere with the more 
striking features; such for example, as having only 
three sepals instead of five, having the seed-vessel 


THE ROCK-ROSE TRIBE. 73 


very imperfectly divided into cells by short partitions, 
and so on. 

It must be obvious to you, when you come to consider 
the resemblance of the Rock-Rose Tribe to others, that 
it has a strongly marked analogy with Poppies (Vol. I. 
plate 1. p. 19.). They both have crumpled petals, which 
fall off soon after they expand, a great many stamens 
growing beneath the ovary, an ovary with parietal pla- 
But, on the other hand, 
they are separated by many equally remarkable differ- 
ences, as you will see by the following contrast. 


cent, and numerous seeds. 


Poppy TRIBE. 
Parts of flower 3 or 4. 
Calyx in a perfect whorl, and 
soon falling off. 


Ovules with the foramen next 
the base. 

Embryo straight and very mi- 
nute, in a large quantity of 
albumen. 

Radicle of the embryo next the 
base of the seed. 


Rock-Rost TRIBE. 

Parts of flower 5. 

Calyx in a broken whorl, and 
remaining on the plant asa 
protection to the seed-vessel. 

Ovules with the foramen at the 
point. 

Embryo rolled up, filling the in- 
side of the seed, almost to the 
exclusion of the albumen. 

Radicle of the embryo at the 
point of the seed. 


I have just mentioned that the Rock-Rose ‘Tribe 
has a very extraordinary structure ; let me now 
explain in what that consists. You have already re- 
marked that the ovule (fig. 5.) has a perforation or 
foramen at its point; all ovules have such a perfora- 
tion, but not all in the same place. In most ovules it 
is next the base, in a few only does it exist at the point, 
as in the plants before you. ‘The use of the foramen 


is not a little curious. You are aware that when the 


74 LETTER XXXII. 


ovule is first formed it is no more than a mass of 
pulp, in which little or no organization can be de- 
tected internally; but in process of time a small 
cloudy speck forms in this pulpy interior, and keeps 
growing larger and larger, till at last it becomes an 
embryo. It has been observed that the speck always 
first becomes visible next the foramen; and there is 
great reason to believe that in reality the speck is in- 
troduced into the ovule through the foramen. FT ur- 
ther, it is supposed that it is in the anther that this 
speck is first formed ; that it origimates in the inside of 
a grain of pollen; that when the pollen falls upon the 
stigma, the former puts forth an excessively fine tube, 
much finer than the most delicate hair; that the tube 
passes down the style, and continues to lengthen till it 
reaches the foramen; that the contents of the grain of 
pollen are discharged into the tube, and the speck with 
them; that it is then, by some hidden and mysterious 
agency, carried down the tube; and that, finally, it is 
thus conveyed into the ovule through the foramen. For 
all the evidence, and the many curious facts, connected 
with this part of botany, I must refer you to modern 
Introductions to the subject ; in this place, you must be 
satisfied with my assurance, that this extraordinary 
statement is supported, not only by observations of my 
own, but by the concurrent testimony of all the most 
cautious and skilful microscopical observers who have 
engaged in the inquiry. 

What I have already stated to you is extraordinary 
enough, and much cause as you have already found 
at every step to admire the wonderful care and skill 


THE ROCK-ROSE TRIBE. 73 


with which all the actions of vegetable life are con- 
ducted, yet I think you must here find a fresh and un- 
expected source of admiration. You see, that in the 
formation of the seed of even what we may deem the 
most worthless weed, there is the same unerring 
Providence, as in the preservation of the race of 
man. Only think for a moment, upon the long long 
journey that the little speck, the tiny rudiment of a 
seed, has to take before it can arrive at the only place 
in which it is possible that its destiny can be fulfilled, 
or that it should be developed into a new being. Born 
in the pollen-grain, it is originally enclosed in a doubly 
guarded prison : its own little spherical vault, and the 
more extensive walls of the anther. ‘The anther must 
open before the pollen can escape; and it must open 
too at a particular time, at the very moment when the 
stigma has secreted a clammy dew, which will hold 
fast the pollen if it falls upon it. Then the pollen 
must fall on the stigma; to fall elsewhere is useless. 
This accomplished, the microscopic rudiment of the 
seed, which, although not exactly an étre de raison, for 
it can be discovered with the microscope, is practically 
so to human eyes—this almost invisible particle, has to 
commence a long and winding journey through all the 
intricacies of the style, and the ovary, till its guardian 
tube conducts it to the ovule and deposits it in safety. 
And all this is so provided for, that we find every ad- 
justment exactly that which is best suited to the object 
in view; invisible springs in the anther, acted upon 
by the very same cause as that which renders the 
stigma clammy, combine their million little forces to 


76 LETTER XXXII. 


pull open the sides of that case ; to enable their forces to 
act with certainty, the sides of the anther are weakened 
in a particular line, which in every anther of the same 
species is constantly the same. It is supposed that 
the clamminess of the stigma is not merely to stick 
the pollen-grain fast, but also to cause the formation 
of the pollen-tube; to enable the latter to reach the 
ovule, notwithstanding its excessive delicacy, the whole 
texture of the stigma and style is loosened, so as to 
offer as little resistance as possible to the passage of 
the pollen-tube. In this Rock-Rose Tribe we have 
a still further example of the facility with which ob- 
stacles to communication between the pollen-tube and 
the opening in the ovule are overcome. 

If we suppose a grain of pollen to fall on the stigma 
of aCistus (fig. 3. a.), its tube may be easily under- 
stood to reach the place where the ovules grow 
(fig. 3. b.); but, when there, it is cut off from the 
foramen by the whole length of the stalk and sides of 
the ovule, for the foramen is at the other end of the 
latter. In order to overcome this difficulty, we are told 
by M. Adolphe Brongniart, that the pollen-tube does 
not follow the placenta till it reaches the ovule (at b.), 
but quits the style at the top of the cavity of each 
cell (c.), and thencelengthens in the open space inside 
the ovary, in the form of the finest imaginable cobweb, 
till it reaches the foramen in the end of the ovules. 

To make this clearer, observe the following dia- 
gram (fig. 10.). Let the perpendicular a. g. represent 
the style, the line a. b. the side of the ovary, the hori- 
zontal line b. c. the base of the ovary, the curve a. d. 


THE ROCK-ROSE TRIBE. Fi 


the placenta, e. the ovule, and f. its foramen; then 
the pollen-tubes may be stated to quit the style at a., 
to hang down freely in the cavity of the ovary, in the 
direction of the dotted line a. f., and thus to secure a 
short line of communication with the foramen. 

Many more such cases are to be found by those 
who search for them; but none much more curious 
than the present. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXII. 


I. Tue Lyrurum Trise.—l, A twig of Lythrum Salicaria, the 
Purple Loosestrife, in flower.—2. A flower slightly magnified.—3, The 
calyx cut open, showing the two rows of stamens, and the manner in 
which they adhere to the calyx —4. An ovary, with the style and 
stigma.—5. A horizontal view of the interior of the ovary, showing 
the ovules adhering to the placenta.—6. Half a calyx, with the ripe 
fruit in the inside; a one of the halves of the style, carried away on 
the point of the valve of the fruit when it burst.—7. A ripe seed; a 
the raphe, with the chalaza at its end.—_8. A longitudinal section of 
the seed, showing the dicotyledonous embryo. 

‘Il. Tae Rock-Rose Triepe.—l. A flower and leaves of the Pur- 
ple Rock-Rose (Cistus purpureus).—2. A calyx with the stamens and 
ovary, a a the two outer sepals.—3. A longitudinal section of the 
ovary; athe stigma, 4 the placenta; this gives a good view of the 
ovules.—4. An anther.—5. An ovule; a the foramen.—6 A ripe 
seed-vessel, invested with the calyx.—7. A seed vessel burst ; the seeds 
fallen out; a a valves.—S. A seed—9. The same cut longitudinally, 
showing the embryo rolled up, with the radicle at a—10. A diagram 
to explain the manner in which the pollen-tubes reach the foramen of 
the ovule. 


BET PER XAT 


THE TAMARISK TRIBE—THE SUN-DEW TRIBE—HAIRS 
OF PLANTS. 


OLLI ODPL ELD DD 


(Plate XX XTIT.) 


erereeerre rere 


We have scarcely a prettier shrub in our gardens 
than the Tamarisk, with its long, deep-brown, slender 
rods, delicately studded near the points with green 
scale-like leaves, or bowing beneath the weight of 
graceful plumes of faintly blushing blossoms ; in their 
native places the species are still more striking. On 
the sea-beaten cliffs of a wild shore, the dry rocky bed 
of a winter torrent, the naked plains of Egypt, the 
islands of the Nile, the wilderness of Sinai, and the 
desolate coast of the Red Sea; in these and other such 
places the Tamarisk rises with its greatest grace and 
beauty. 

There is something in the habit of this plant so 
peculiar, that the Botanist has always been puzzled to 
determine with what others it should be allied; and 
after one incongruous association or another, it seems 
now settled that it has no very marked affinity with 
other plants, but really possesses so peculiar a struc- 
ture as to form a little group by itself. 

In the gardens are two distinct kinds of Tamarisk, 
one called the French, with dark chocolate-brown 
branches (Tamarix gallica), and the other called the 


XXX, 2. 


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THE TAMARISK TRIBE. 79 


German, with a sea-green bark (Myricaria germanica). 
The former is much the handsomer of the two, and the 
one we will take for examination. 

Its leaves are little green scales, closely packed one 
above the other, and covering the stem while it is young, 
but quickly falling offas the branches grow old. The 
same peculiarity is found in all the plants of the 
Tamarisk Trispe. So is the manner in which the 
flowers are placed, in long, graceful, tail-like racemes, 
at the extremity of the branches (Plate XX XIII. 1. 
fig. 1.). 

Each flower consists of a sea-green calyx, having a 
cup-like downy tube, and five oval lobes delicately 
bordered with pink (fig. 3.) ; of five spreading white 
petals (fig. 2.); five stamens growing from below the 
pistil (fig. 4.); and a superior ovary. The latter is 
pale yellow tinged with pink (fig. 4.), shaped some- 
thing like a flask, and suddenly ends in three white 
styles, each terminated by a thick granulated stigma. 
The interior of the ovary consists of a single cavity 
(fig. 6.), at the very bottom of which lie three convex 
placentas covered with ovules ( fig. 7.). 

I do not find this kind of ‘Tamarisk with ripe seed- 
vessels, but here is that of the German Tamarisk 
( fig. A.) which does as well. It is divided into three 
valves, each of which has an elevated ridge along 
its middle, and is surrounded at the base, not only 
by the dried up calyx, but also by the petals which 
adhere to the seed-vessel in the form of little scales 
(fig. A. a.). The seeds in this species are terminated 
by a long beak, the end of which is surmounted by a 


SO DETTEROKKR III. 


tuft of hairs (fig. B.), doubtless intended to enable the 
seed to ride on the wind, and to be transported from 
place to place; in the French Tamarisk this provision 
exists only in a very rudimentary state. In the inside 
of the seed les an embryo with two cotyledons, and no 
albumen (fig C.). 

What renders the French Tamarisk still more in- 
teresting than its graceful form, is the belief that it 
was from this plant, or a local variety of it, that the 
manna fell, on which the Israelites subsisted during 
their sojourn of forty years in the deserts of Arabia, 
The celebrated Professor Ehrenberg gathered manna 
with his own hands from the Tamarisks of the wilder- 
ness of Sinai, and it is certain that the species grows 
plentifully in all the countries adjacent to the Red Sea. 
That manna did fall from the Tamarisk, is rendered 
more probable by the fact that this substance is at 
the present day produced by only two plants in the 
East, one the Tamarisk, the other the Camel’s Thorn 
(Alhagi Maurorum) ; but as the manna of the Mosaic 
history is said to have fallen from heaven, that is, from 
some height, it could scarcely have been produced by 
the Camel’s Thorn, which is only a low bush, while it 
might easily have dropped from the Tamarisk, which 
becomes a tree. It is, moreover, not a little curious 
that the Tamarisk manna is very different in its effects 
from the bitter sweet manna of the druggists’ shops, 
which is sometimes given to infants as medicine; 
Tamarisk manna is stated by the chemists, who have 
examined it, to consist of pure mucilaginous sugar, 
one of the most nutritious of known substances. 


THE SUN-DEW TRIBE. 81 


You will presently see that so far as you have any 
means of judging upon such points, the Tamarisk 
Tribe has a near resemblance to the Sun-dews or 
Droseras in some respects, although the resemblances 
are in reality those of analogy only, and not of affinity. 


Queen of the Marsh, imperial Drosera treads 
Rush-fringed banks and moss-embroidered beds ; 
Redundant folds of glossy silk surround 

Her slender waist, and trail upon the ground. 
As with sweet grace her snowy neck she bows 

A zone of diamonds trembles round her brows ; 
Bright shines the silver halo, as she turns ; 


And, as she steps, the living lustre burns. 


It is thus that Dr. Darwin introduces one of the 
most curious little plants in the world; and although 
the exact rules of science will necessarily repudiate 
such language, yet it must be confessed that there is 
much poetical truth and beauty in the description. 

You will, I am quite sure, be anxious to make ac- 
quaintance with Drosera, who would rather seem to be 
a fairy than a plant, by the poet’s description ; but 
I fear there is little chance of your beholding her upon 
her own moss-embroidered bed, unless by accident: for 
her home is the fen and the marsh, the oozy heath and 
the treacherous morass, where she takes possession of 
every little hillock elevated somewhat above the sur- 
rounding waters, and whence no art can induce her per- 
manently to depart. If you snatch her from her native 
soil, and cherish her with the most curious care, you will 
hardly succeed in prolonging her existence beyond a 

VOL. II. G 


82 LETTER XXXIII. 


few short months. Let her, however, be sought for 
by all means, and she will richly reward you for 
any trouble you may take in procuring her. When 
she is in your possession, plant her among some 
bog-moss in a saucer or deep dish, place over her a bell- 
glass, pour water into the dish till it rises above the 
rim of the glass, then expose her to the full rays of 
the sun, and you will have done all that art can effect 
to secure her. 

The structure of Drosera is the following, if you 
take the Round-leaved (Drosera rotundifolia), which 
is the commonest species, as an example. In this 
plant the most remarkable part is the leaves, and the 
least remarkable the fructification. The former are 
nearly round, and grow upon long hairy stalks; they 
are at first folded up in such a manner that they look 
something like little green hoods (Plate XX XIII. 2. 
fig. 1. a.), but they afterwards spread out into small 
concave disks, covered over with long, shining, red 
hairs, that secrete from their point aclear fluid, which 
gives the leaves the appearance of being covered with 
dew-drops. Real dew is, you know, always dispersed and 
dried up by the heat of the sun, so that it is only at the 
earliest hours of the morning that it can be seen in the 
summer; but the glittermg dew-like secretion with 
which the leaves of this plant are bespangled is most 
abundant when the sun is at his highest, and hence it 
has acquired its popular name of Sun-dew ; as if the 
particles of water which cause the leaves to sparkle 
were really dew, condensed by the sun’s rays. 

The apparatus by means of which the moisture is 


THE SUN-DEW TRIBE. 85 


secreted, forms one of the most beautiful of objects 
for the microscope. Let us take a single hair, and 
place it under a magnifying glass, taking care to 
throw upon it from above a strong reflected light, 
and using the precaution of cutting off all the rays 
that come from below. You will now see that what 
seemed a little hair with a drop of water at its point, 
is really a long curved horn, transparent and glittering 
like glass; delicately studded from top to bottom with 
sparkling points; beautifully stained with bright green 
passing into pink, and mellowing into a pale yellow, as 
if emeralds, rubies, and topazes had been melted, and 
just run together without mixing; and finally tipped 
with a large polished oval carbuncle, or ruby of the 
deepest die (fig. 3.). In this there is no exaggera- 
tion ; for what tints can possibly represent the bril- 
liancy of vegetable colours, except those of the purest 
and noblest of precious stones ? 

If you observe this organ a little more carefully, you 
will remark a number of faint streaks running side by 
side from its lower to its upper end, and interrupted at 
brief but pretty regular intervals, by exceedingly short 
transverse lines. These marks are external indications 
of the cells that the organ is composed of ; and if you 
take the trouble to compute the number of such cells 
required to form it, you will find that there must be at 
least two thousand such cells in each of these little 
horns. Every one of such cells is continually absorbing, 
and secreting, and digesting the fluids that pass into it 
from the leaf, or from the air; so that for the due per- 
formance of the office of such a minute body as a hair 

G 2 


84 LETTER! XX XIII: 


of the Sun-dew leaf, no fewer than two thousand little 
digesting cells, or stomachs, are incessantly exercising 
and combining their tiny forces ! 

There is still the ruby-coloured point to examine. 
In its interior structure it is like the hair itself, only 
all the parts are more solid; it is here that the fluid 
secreted by the hair is finally concentrated ; and it is 
from this that the dew is continually exuding, so as to 
stand upon it like a drop of water. The water has a 
slightly acrid taste, and is probably thrown off from 
the leaf, because its continued presence in the system 
of the Sun-dew would be pernicious. 

The hairs of our British Droseras possess the 
power of closing upon insects and holding them fast. 
““ When an insect settles upon them, it is retained by 
the viscosity of the glands, and in a little while the 
hairs exhibit a considerable degree of irritability by 
curving inwards, and thus holding it secure.”—(Hen- 
slow.) And Dr. Royle describes the phenomenon as 
occurring so obviously in an Indian species of Sun-dew, 
that he had called it “ the fly-catching” in consequence. 

The description just given of the hairs of the Sun-dew, 
is in part applicable to all other hairs; for they are 
generally constructed upon a similar plan, and are 
often, when filled with moisture, most beautiful and 
elaborately constructed organs. Botanists distinguish 
two principal sorts of hairs ; the glandular, in which 
the hair is either tipped with a secreting organ, as in 
the Sun-dew, or arises from one, as in the Borage 
Tribe ; and the lymphatic, in which there is no secret- 
ing organ present, beyond the cell or cells of the hair 


THE SUN-DEW TRIBE. 85 


itself. For a particular account of them you must turn 
to works more explanatory of the structure of plants 
than these letters are intended to be. 

Near the base of the leaf-stalk is a long coarse 
fringe (fig. 4.), which is supposed to represent 
stipules. 

The flowers of the Sun-dew, when expanded, are 
elevated upon a slender scape, along one side of the 
upper end of which they are arranged; but when 
young, they are coiled up in a gyrate (or circinate) 
manner (fig. 1. a.). The calyx consists of five sepals, 
a little glandular externally, and nearly as long as the 
petals (fig. 5. and 6.). ‘The petals are five, snow- 
white, flat, blunt, and spreading (fig. 5.). There are 
five stamens, growing from below the ovary, opposite 
the sepals. The ovary is a superior, oblong case, of 
one cell, and bears three clusters of ovules on its 
sides (fig. 6.); it is surmounted by three forked 
stigmas. The fruit (fig. 7.) is a capsule, half divided 
into three valves, and enclosing a multitude of minute 
seeds. Each seed (fig. 8.) is invested in a loose 
membranous tunic tapering to each end, and con- 
tains a kernel (fig. 9.) filled with a large quantity 
of albumen, in the base of which is a minute two-lobed 
embryo (fig. 10.). 

Many as have been the differences in the combina- 
tion of the floral organs, in the numerous tribes of 
plants already examined by you, this is manifestly one 
to be added to your list ; for in no others have you 
hitherto met with the union of a coiled inflorescence, 
a few hypogynous stamens, parietal placente, and a 


86 LETTER XXXIII. 


minute embryo lying in the base of the albumen. 
These characters, independently of all others, distinctly 
separate the Sun-dews as a peculiar tribe. What the 
plants really are, to which they are most nearly related, 
is still an unsettled point. Violets, Saxifrages, F'ran- 
kenias, have been respectively selected ; but there are 
objections to all those natural groups. It is probable 
that the true affinity of the Sun-dews is with Side- 
saddle Flowers, most curious plants inhabiting the 
marshes of North America. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXIII. 


I. Toe Tamarisk Tripe.—l. A twig of French Tamarisk (Ta- 
marix gallica).—2. A flower, magnified.—3. A calyx seen in profile, 
with the stamens and ovary, the petals being removed.—4. An ovary, 
with the bases of the five stamens grown into a sort of cup, and sur- 
rounding it.—5. An anther, with a portion of the filament.—6. A 
section of the ovary, shewing how the ovules rise from a convexity in 
the bottom.—7. A section of the convexity (or placenta), shewing that 
itis not single but triple—A. Ripe fruit of the German Tamarisk 
(Myricaria germanica) ; a a the withered petals ; 6 4 b the valves of the 
capsule.—B. A seed of the same.—C, it sembryo. 

II. Tue Sun-pew Trise.—1. A plant of Round-leaved Sun-dew ; 
a a young scape, rolled up in a circinate manner ; 6 a young leaf before 
expansion.— 2. A magnified leaf, showing the glandular hairs.—3. A 
glandular hair, very highly magnified.—4. The lower end of a leaf- 
stalk, with the stipulary fringe.—5. A flower, magnified.—6. A section 
of the ovary, exhibiting the parietal placentation; @ a stigma.—7. A 
ripe capsule.—8. A seed, very highly magnified ;—9. its kernel.—10. 
The same divided lengthwise, and exhibiting the embryo at the base of 
fleshy albumen. 


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XXXIV. 


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LETTER XXXIV. 


VENUS -FLY TRAP—ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE 
OF LEAVES. 


(Plates XX XIV. and XX XV.) 


ARE you acquainted with a most singular plant, the 
Venus’ Fly-trap (Dionzea muscipula), an inhabitant 
of turfy and sandy bogs in the warmer parts of the 
United States ?* If not, search for it immediately in 


* I copy the following account of Dionza, in its American home, 
from a work on the plants of North Carolina, by Mr. M. A. Curtis, as 
quoted in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine. 

« The Dionza muscipula is found as far north as Newbern, North 
Carolina, and from the mouth of Cape Fear River nearly to Fayetteville. 
Elliott says, on the authority of General Pinckney, that it grows along 
the lower branches of the Santee, in South Carolina, and | think it is 
not improbable that it inhabits the Savannahs more or less abundantly 
from the latter place to Newbern. It is found in great plenty for many 
miles around Wilmington in every direction. 

*« T venture a short notice of this interesting and curious plant, not 
being aware that any popular description of it has been published in 
this country. The leaf, which is the only remarkable part, springs from 
the root, spreading upon the ground, at a little elevation above it. It 
is composed of a petiole, or stem with broad margins, like the leaf of the 
orange tree, two to four inches long, which, at the end, suddenly expands 
into a thick and somewhat rigid leaf, the two sides of which are semi- 
circular, about two-thirds of an inch across, and fringed around their 
edges with somewhat rigid cilie, or long hairs, like eye-lashes. The 


leaf, indeed, may be very aptly compared to two upper eyelids, joined at 


88 LETTER XXXIV. 


the nurseries, place it among bog-moss in a green- 
house, and cover it with a bell-glass, keeping it con- 
stantly damp. In this manner you may secure for 
a year or two one of the most curious examples of 
irritability which the vegetable world contains; and 


their bases. Each portion of the leaf is a little concave on the inner 
side, where are placed three delicate, hair-like organs, in such an order 
that an insect can hardly traverse it, without interfering with one of 
them, when the two sides suddenly collapse and enclose their prey, with 
a force surpassing an insect’s attempts toescape. The fringe or hairs of 
the opposite sides interlace, like the fingers of the two hands clasped 
together, The sensitiveness resides only in these hair-like processes on 
the inside, as the leaf may be touched or pressed in any other part, with- 
out sensible effects. The little prisoner is not crushed and suddenly 
destroyed, as is sometimes supposed, for I have often liberated captive 
flies and spiders, which sped away as fast as fear or joy could hasten 
them. At other times, I have found them enveloped in a fluid of muci- 
laginous consistence, which seems to act as a solvent, the insects being 
more or less consumed by it. This circumstance has suggested the 
possibility of the insects being made subservient to the nourishment of 
the plant, through an apparatus of absorbent vessels in the leaves. But 
as I have not examined sufficiently to pronounce on the universality of 
this result, it will require further observation and experiment on the spot 
to ascertain its nature and importance. 

“‘ It is not to be supposed, however, that such food is necessary to 
the existence of the plant, though, like compost, it may increase its 
growth and vigour. But however obscure and uncertain may be the 
final purpose of such a singular organization, if it were a problem to 
construct a plant with reference to entrapping insects, I cannot conceive 
of a form and organization better adapted to secure that end, than are 
found in the Dionzea muscipula. I therefore deem it no credulous 
inference, that its leaves are constructed for that specific object, whether 
insects subserve the purpose of nourishment to the plant or not. It is 
no objection to this view, that they are subject to blind accident, and 


sometimes close upon straws, as wells as insects. It would be a curious 


VENUS’ FLY-TRAP. 89 


which, in some respects, is more striking than even the 
Sensitive plants themselves, for they merely shrink 
away from the touch, while this plant firmly grasps, with 
its wonderful leaves, anything that comes within their 
reach. Its near connection with the subject of the last 
letter induces me to dwell upon its peculiarities at 
some length, independently of its own most interesting 
organization. 

Its leaves spread in a circle round the crown of the 
root, and either lie flat upon the ground, or gently ele- 
vate themselves above the soil. ‘They have no stipules, 
or stipulary fringes, but consist of two parts, very dis- 
tinctly separated from each other, and remarkably dif- 
ferent in their nature; one of these parts is a stalk 
and the other a blade, but both so much disguised as 
hardly to be recognised. ‘The stalk is a flat, green, 
wavy, obovate, very obtuse, leafy expansion, the veins 
in which are coarsely netted, with curved branches, 
which, growing to each other’s backs, form a number 
of somewhat lozenge-shaped meshes (Plate XXXIV. 
1.). The blade is jomed to this by a very narrow 
neck, and consists of a roundish, thick, leathery plate, 
slightly notched at each end, having strong hidden 


parallel yeins, which spread, at nearly a right angle, 


vegetable, indeed, that had a faculty of distinguishing bodies, and re- 
coiled at the touch of one, while it quietly submitted to violence from 
another. Such capricious sensitiveness is not a property of the vege- 
table kingdom. The spider’s net is spread to ensnare flies, yet it catches 
whatever falls upon it; and the ant-lion is roused from his hiding-place 
by the fall of a pebble; so much are insects, also, subject to the 


blindness of accident.” 


90 LETTER XXXL 


from the midrib to the margin, and bordered with a 
row of strong, stiff, teeth-like hairs. When young, the 
two sides of the blade are placed face to face, and the 
teeth cross each other (fig. 1. a.); afterwards, when 
full grown, the sides spread flat, or nearly so, and the 
teeth then form a firm spreading border (fig. 6.). 
On each half of the blade, stand three delicate almost 
invisible bristles, uniformly arranged in a triangle. 
If one of those bristles is touched, the two sides co!- 
lapse with considerable force, the marginal teeth 
crossing each other, so as to enclose securely any small 
object which may have caused the irritation, or pressing 
firmly upon the finger, when the irritation is produced 
by it ; but wonderful to relate, no other part of the 
leaf is sensible to external impressions. It is in vain 
that the back of the leaf is disturbed, or that the 
smooth glandular surface of the face is irritated; unless 
you jar one of these bristles no irritability whatever 
is excited, and the leaf remains immoveably open. 
The moment the shock is communicated through one 
of the bristles, the collapse of the leaf is effected, 
which then assumes altogether the appearance of an 
iron rabbit-trap when it has closed upon its prey (jig. 
l. c.). If, at. this time, an attempt is made to open 
the leaf, it is violently resisted, in consequence of the 
rigidity of the side veins, whose contraction seems to be 
connected with the phenomenon. Upon this subject 
I shall not dwell any further just now. 

The flowers grow in a cyme at the top of a scape, 
six or seven inches high. They consist of a calyx of 
five tooth-letted sepals, five very blunt petals, sightly 


VENUS’ FLY-TRAP. OI 


two-lobed at the point, ten stamens growing from 
beneath the pistil, and of a superior ovary (fig. 2.). 
The anthers are covered over with little glittering 
glands. ‘The ovary has a depressed form, something 
like that of an old German wine-bottle (fig. 4.) ; it 
contains but one cell, in the very bottom of which are 
two flat placente (fig. 6.), from which a great number 
of ovules grow erect ; it gradually tapers into a green 
column of a style, the point of which is split into a 
ring of fringes (fig. 4. & 5.), and forms astigma. The 
seed-vessel is a small flask-shaped capsule (fig. 8.), 
closely covered over by the calyx, and remains of 
the corolla. It contains a considerable number of 
black, oblong seeds, that are discharged only after 
the decay of the seed-vessel, which has no means of 
spontaneously opening. The seeds have a con- 
spicuous raphe (fig. 9. & 10. a.) and chalaza (fig. 9. 
& 10. 6.), and contain a kernel enveloped in a soft 
spongy substance (fig. 11. a.). “The kernel is princi- 
pally composed of albumen, the embryo (fig. 12. ¢. & 
13.) being avery small two-lobed body. 

Upon comparing this with the structure of the Sun- 
dew, it must be obvious to you, that the number of 
points of identity is extremely numerous, and that, in 
reality, the most important differences consist in the 
number of stamens being greater in Dionza, there 
bemg but two placente, and those arising from the 
base of the capsule, the seed-vessel not bursting, the 
seeds not having a loose integument, the stigma not 
having twice as many lobes as placentz, and the leaves 
being destitute of stipulary fringes upon their stalks. 


92 LETTER XXXIV. 

Such distinctions would be more important, if many 
more species, corresponding with one another in habit, 
were found to possess them ; but as there is nothing 
in the habit of Dionza, materially at variance with 
that of Sun-dew, and as only one species of the genus 
has ever been seen, it is not considered absolutely 
necessary to separate it from the Sun-dew ‘Tribe ; espe- 
cially as the position of the placente at the base, 
instead of the sides of the seed-vessel, is not esteemed 
of any structural importance. Nevertheless, it is to 
be remarked, that the flower-cyme is not coiled up, in 
a circinate manner, before the flowers unfold, that 
there is no trace of a tendency in Dionza, to open its 
seed-vessel by valves, and that the loose tegument of 
the seed of Sun-dew has no parallel in Dionza. 

Such are the principal circumstances deserving notice 
in the fructification of the Venus’ Fly-trap. Let us 
now recur to the highly curious phenomenon from 
which it derives its name. You have seen that the upper 
surface of the blade of its leaf is extremely irritable, 
so that, when it is touched never so gently, the two 
sides collapse forcibly; it has been said, that this irrita- 
bility invariably resides in three bristles, similar to the 
teeth of the margin, but much finer, and growing from 
the surface of the leaf in a triangular order. Why it is, 
or by virtue of what power, the bristles possess the key 
to the irritability of the Dionza leaf, no one has ever 
succeeded in discovering. ‘The phenomenon seems to 
belong to the extensive class of final causes which man 
is not permitted to explain. We, moreover, find upon 
the surface, a prodigious multitude of red glands, so 


ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE OF LEAVES. 93 


minute as to be individually invisible to the naked eye, 
but giving a red tinge to the leaf. Such glands are 
found nowhere except upon the upper surface of the 
leaf, in the neighbourhood of the delicate seat of 
irritability. It is in vain that you stimulate the teeth 
of the margin, the back of the blade, or its stalk ; 
in none of these parts is there a trace of irritability ; 
and in none of these parts is there a trace of the 
glands. It is not, therefore, improbable that these 
glands are either in some way connected with the irri- 
tability, although it is not they through which the 
shock is first communicated to the leaf, or, as Mr. 
Curtis supposes, are intended to absorb the nutriment 
afforded to the leaf by the decay of the insects en- 
trapped in it. 

Let us be a little more particular in the examina- 
tion of the Dionza leaf; for it will not only give you 
instruction in respect to the plant actually before you, 
but will afford an insight into the general nature of 
the anatomy of all leaves. 

With an exceedingly sharp, thin-bladed knife, 
obtain a thin slice of a leaf, in the direction of its 
veins (as from b to ein Plate XXXIV. fig. 1.), so as 
to shew its whole thickness. Place it under a good 
microscope, in water, and by means of the mirror 
throw light upon the slice from below; it will then 
become a transparent object, and you will be able to 
see all that minute, internal organization, which is 
entirely invisible to the naked eye, and which enables 
the leaf to breathe, perspire, digest, and perform 
its other manifold offices. You will also find that a 


94 LETTER XXXIV. 


leaf is not a thin homogeneous mass of firm pulp, nor 
a confused mixture of pulp and fibre; but a most 
elaborate, and yet simple apparatus, in which every 
part is adjusted with the utmost nicety ; that, more- 
over, thin as the leaf appears, it is actually composed of 
at least nineteen or twenty layers of cells, besides a large 
line of vessels in its middle. That you may under- 
stand this the better, let me refer you to the accompa- 
nying sketch of such a slice as I have been talking 
of (Plate XXXV. fig. 1.). Let A be the upper sur- 
face, and B the lower surface. The upper surface is 
protected by a very thin, transparent, rather tough, 
homogeneous membrane (a@.), which overlies all the 
cuticle, except perhaps the stomates, and does not 
appear to be in any degree cellular. It is not 1mpro- 
bable that a similar membrane is found on the upper 
side of all leaves ; it has been seen in the Cabbage, 
the Foxglove, &c. but has not hitherto been much 
investigated. On the lower surface of Dionza-leaf, 
this membrane is absent. Immediately beneath the 
membrane, comes the skin or cuticle (b.), which, al- 
though it may be stripped off, nevertheless consists of 
long, flat, thick-sided cells, adhermg very firmly 
to each other. This you will see more distinctly, 
if you strip off a piece of the skin from another por- 
tion of the leaf, and place it in water, in the same 
manner (figs. 2 & 3.). 

From the cuticle of the upper surface there spring, 
at very short intervals, little red glands (fig. 1. dd d.), 
which grow from minute, green, oval spaces, composed 
of two, parallel, green cells, and resembling stomates. 


ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE OF LEAVES. 95 


These are the glands already referred to. They are firm 
fleshy bodies, resembling little convex buttons; and 
are composed of cells, arranged in a circular manner, 
round an axis, consisting of two such cells, stationed 
one on the top of the other (fig. 4. & 5.). I presume 
that these glands are analogous to the curious hairs of 
Sun-dew, although we do not see that they are pos- 
sessed of any irritability; but in the Sun-dew they 
arise from a general expansion of the cuticle, and 
not from spurious stomates. 

The cuticle of the under-side of the leaf is similar 
to that of the upper; but it is destitute of glands 
(fig. 1. e. & fig. 3.), nm eu of which little clusters of 
transparent greenish hairs (f.) grow from the abortive 
stomates. ‘These hairs are each composed of one 
single cell, and may be considered a rudimentary form 
of the glands of the upper surface of the leaf (figs. 6. 
& 7.). On the under surface, however, you will find, 
in addition, a considerable number of true stomates, 
or breathing pores (fig. 3. aaa.). What those organs 
are, and for what purpose they are believed to be 
intended, has already been explained to you (Vol. I. 
p- 103.>. 

Immediately beneath the cuticle of either surface 
of the leaf les the parenchyma, or pulpy part (fig. 
1. ¢ c.), composed of several layers of cells, gradually 
growing larger, more transparent, and thinner-sided, 
as they approach the middle. The cells of paren- 
chyma are supposed to be the principal seat of diges- 
tion and respiration. The food of the plant is pro- 
pelled into the leaf through the woody tubes, 


96 LETTER XXXIV. 


next to be spoken of, from them it is given off to 
the parenchyma, where it is gradually changed by 
the complicated processes of digestion, and whence it 
is returned into the body of the plant. Below the 
parenchyma run the woody tubes or fibres (fig. 1. gg), 
which are in this plant short cylinders, but which 
more generally are very long and flexible ; they com- 
pose a sheath, 3 or 4 layers thick, to protect the spiral 
vessels (h.): highly elastic tubes, capable of unrolling 
in a spiral direction, and supposed to be connected 
with the respiration of plants. 

In the accompanying sketch, all the cells of the 
parenchyma are represented as being in close contact 
with each other; but, in reality, there are many open 
spaces among the cells, arranged in no regular order, 
and believed to be intended for facilitating the pas- 
sage of air from one part of the interior of a leaf to 
another. 

It is far from bemg my intention to explain any 
further, in this place, the anatomical structure of 
leaves. That of Dionza gives you a sufficiently just 
idea of the general plan on which they are formed 
internally ; for more exact information, I must refer 
you to the higher elementary works on Botany. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATES XXXIV. AND XXXV. 


Pirate XXXIV.—1. An entire plant of Venus’ Fly-trap (Dionwa 
muscipula) in flower, and bearing leaves in different states ; a represents 
a leaf before it is expanded ; 6 is another fully open; cis a third which 
has closed upon an insect; d is a dilated leaf-stalk, on which the blade 
of the leaf is not formed.—2. A section of a flower, with the petals 
removed ; exhibiting the origin of the stamens, the position of the 
ovules, and the form of the stigma.—3. An anther, and the upper end 
of the filament.—4. An ovary—5. A stigma, closed after fertilization 
has taken place.—6. A bird’s-eye view of the bottom of the inside of 
the ovary, with the two placentas.—7. A ripe seed-vessel, invested by 
the withered calyx and corolla; of the natural size.—8. A ripe seed- 
vessel magnified, with the calyx and corolla stripped off.—9. A seed 
seen from the side; a the raphe, 6 the chalaza.—10. A seed seen from 
the edge; a the raphe, 4 the chalaza.—11. A cross section of a seed ; 
a the spongy substance (secundine?) lying between the testa and 
the nucleus, 4 the nucleus, c the raphe.—12. A kernel taken out of 
the testa; aa portion of the raphe, 6 the albumen, ¢ the embryo. — 
13. An embryo. 

Pirate XXXV.—I. A highly magnified view of a slice of the leaf 
of Dionza, taken in the direction of the veins; A the upper surface, 
B the under ; a the outer integument; 6 and e the cuticle; ce the 
parenchyma ; ddd the glands ; f one of the tufts of hairs arising from 
an abortive stomate ; g g the woody tubes that surround the spiral ves- 
sels; h a bundle of spiral vessels. —2. A bird’s-eye view of the skin 
of the upper surface; a the outer integument, through which the cuticle 
is seen; 5 a gland; c ¢ abortive stomates.—3. A bird's-eye view of 
the skin of the lower surface; aa perfect stomates; b b abortive sto- 
mates; ¢ a tuft of hairs arising from an abortive stomate.—4. Bird’s- 
eye view of a gland very highly magnified.—5. A side view of the 
same.—6. 7. Views of one of the tufts of hairs that grow upon the 
under surface. 


VOL. II. H 


LETTER XXXV. 


THE HORSE-CHESNUT TRIBE—THE WALNUT TRIBE. 


OOP LL LCL LEO ELL LODO LE OLDE OL 


Plate XXXVI. 


PL LLRLLLE OLD L LLL LD OLD D POL D DIO ALD DD 


You must have often admired the Horse-chesnut 
tree, either when rising in solitary beauty on the broad 
greensward of a highly cultivated park, or when, in 
the form of an avenue, great numbers of those trees 
combine into high banks of deep green foliage, and 
gayly tinted flowers. Let us take this plant as our 
next subject of examination, for which purpose we will 
select the rose-coloured species (A%sculus rosea, or 
carnea, Plate XXXVI. 1.). 

Its leaves, you see, are regularly opposite each other 
on the branches, and are divided into several toothed 
lobes, which all proceed from one common point at the 
top of a strong round foot-stalk. The flowers appear 
in compact, erect, stiff panicles, at the ends of the 
branches. Their bractes are small, and quickly wither 
away, falling off, and leaving a scar behind them. 
Their calyx is a fleshy, smooth, reddish cup, divided 
at the edge into five unequal, oblong, blunt lobes. The 
petals are four only ; their claw is long and channelled, 
and inserted below a one-sided, wrinkled, inconspi- 
cuous disk (fig. 2. a.); their limb is oblong, crumpled, 
crisped, of a bright yellowish red colour, changing 


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THE HORSE-CHESNUT TRIBE. 99 


into bright orange-yellow at the base, and covered 
with soft hairs; two of the petals stand at the back of 
the flower, and two at its sides, overlapping the former 
a good deal, and exceeding them considerably in size; 
a fifth petal is wanting from the front, and hence this 
flower is both unequal and unsymmetrical in its corolla. 
This irregularity occurs also in every part, except the 
ovary. We have already seen that the lobes of the 
calyx are unequal; the disk has also been described as 
one-sided ; and you will next find that the stamens are 
unsymmetrical, with regard to the surrounding parts. 
Instead of being five or ten, and so corresponding 
with the calyx, or four or eight, which would agree 
with the petals, you will find only seven, which sym- 
metrizes with neither; they are curved downwards 
towards the front of the flower, their filaments are 
covered with long hairs (fig. 2.), which protect the 
style, and they terminate in oblong, red, hairy anthers, 
tipped with a reddish point (fig. 5.). The pistil is 
covered with hairs, and bent forwards and downwards 
in the direction of the stamens. It has a simple style, 
the point of which, where the stigma is, has no hairs, 
and a fleshy two or three celled ovary (fig. 3.), the 
sides of which are deeply channelled by the pressure 
of the filaments. In each cell you will find two ovules, 
one of which rises up, while the other hangs down, 
from a projecting horizontal placenta (fig. 4.). 

The fruit of this plant becomes an unequal-sided, 
leathery, muricated seed-vessel (fig. 6.), opening by 
two or three valves, and containing one large roundish : 
seed in each cell. The seeds (fig. 7.) have a hard, 

H 2 


100 LETTER XXXV. 


shining, deep-brown coat, a very broad sear (fig. 7. a.), 
on one side, and a little conical elevation, which 
touches with its point one edge of the scar (fig. 7. b.). 
This conical elevation represents the position of the 
radicle of the embryo that is hidden beneath the seed- 
coat. Let the latter be removed; you will find below it 
a roundish, wrinkled, fleshy body, which you cannot 
separate into cotyledons, but whose radicle, curved down 
upon itself, is distinctly visible. Here we have one 
of several instances, where the cotyledons grow to 
each other, so as not to be separable. The plumule, 
or growing point, of this embryo lies closely packed 
between the bases of the consolidated cotyledons, and 
one wonders how it is to escape from them, when 
the time shall arrive for the seed to commence its 
growth into a plant. A simple alteration in the ad- 
justment of the parts produces the desired effect. As 
the cotyledons cannot unfold in the usual manner, 
in order to allow the plumule to pass between them, 
the passage of the latter upwards into the air is pro- 
vided for by a slight extension of the bases of the 
cotyledons, which begin to lengthen when the radicle 
forces itself into the earth, and thus extricate the 
plumule from what would otherwise be its prison- 
house. ; 

The structure that exists in the Red and the Com- 
mon Horse-chesnuts is nearly the same as what occurs 
in the other species of the order, which is an extremely 
small one. The Pavias, or Scarlet Horse-chesnuts, 
are the only others that deserve notice, and they are 
so conformable in structure as not to require separate 


THE WALNUT TRIBE. 101 


mention. Indeed, the order itself is chiefly introduced 
into this correspondence, by way of illustrating points 
to be hereafter adverted to. 


A much more uncommon structure than that of the 
Horse-chesnut is found in the Walnut, with some 
account of which, asit is so very common and _ useful 
a tree, I may as well fill up the remainder of this 
letter. 

Although my observations will be confined to the 
common Walnut, they will also apply to the principal 
part of the Watnur Tris, in which are compre- 
hended all the nuts named by the Americans of the 
United States, Hickories, and from which the Red 
Indian makes his bows. 

The common Walnut is, as you know, a tree of very 
large size, producing valuable timber, and having, 
when old, a most majestic appearance; hence Bota- 
nists have named it the Kingly Walnut (Juglans 
regia). It bears long pinnated leaves, something like 
those of the Ash, but placed alternately upon the 
stem, and having, when bruised, a strong balsamic 
odour. 

The chief peculiarity of the Walnut consists in the 
fructification, which, while it approaches in some 
respects that of the Oak Tribe (Vol. I. p. 138.), is of 
an essentially different and very peculiar nature. 

The stamen-bearing flowers are on one part of the 
branch, and the pistil-bearing on another, as in the 
Oak and its allies. The former (Plate XXXVI. 2. 


fig. 1.) are arranged in thick, green, curved, cylindrical 


102 LETTER ‘KXXV. 


spikes, consisting of very short pedicels (fig. 2.), bear- 
ing obliquely on one side about twelve stalkless broad 
anthers, surrounded by about six green scales. ‘These 
spikes fall off soon after the anthers have burst and 
discharged their pollen. 

The pistil-bearing flowers, grow in clusters of two, 
three, or more (fig. 4.), and are composed of an oval, 
downy ovary, crowned by a minute four-lobed calyx 
(fig. 4. a.), four very small petals (fig. 4. 5.), and a 
pair of fringed stigmas, curved in opposite directions. 
The interior of the ovary presents a minute cavity, 
in which is one erect, egg-shaped ovule (fig. 5. a.), 
seated on a pale lobed substance, a longitudinal sec- 
tion of which is extremely similar in form to the Rus- 
sian eagle. The latter substance may be supposed 
to contribute to the nutrition of the embryo, but its 
use has not been yet sufficiently inquired into. 

In course of time, the stamen-bearing flowers fall 
off, as has already been stated, the pistil-bearmg 
flowers alter their appearance, lose their stigmas and 
all trace of a calyx and petals, become much increased 
in size, and at last change to clusters of oblong, deep- 
green, fleshy cases (fig.'7.), which crack irregularly 
and drop, leaving behind them the pale brown tes- 
selated nuts, that are sold in the fruiterers’ shops 
(fig. 8.). Examine one of these nuts, with which you 
ought to be well acquainted, because it is of such every 
day occurrence ; and you will find that it might serve 
as a text for a long and curious disquisition. With 
only the most striking pomts however do I propose to 
occupy your attention. 


THE WALNUT TRIBE. 103 


The nut of the Walnut Tree, deprived of its outer 
fleshy shell, is of the same nature as the stone of a 
Peach or Plum; that is to say, it is the innermost 
layer of the seed-vessel, grown very hard, and sepa- 
rating from the outer layer. Ata very early period (as 
for instance in the state of fig. 5.), the two layers formed 
but one homogeneous body ; and when the inside began 
to harden, without any corresponding change in the 
outside, still the two held firmly together by a network 
of veins, the impressions of which give rise to the 
channels that divide the surface of the nut into nu- 
merous irregular compartments. 

In one respect the nut of the Walnut differs essen- 
tially from the stone of a Peach. In the latter it is 
not divisible into valves; in the former it readily 
separates into two equal valves. These are an evi- 
dence, although only one ovule is present, yet that 
this fruit is in reality made up of two carpels, as 
was indicated by its two recurved stigmas. Now ex- 
amine the valves separately ; each is cut off from the 
other at the base, by an imperfect partition that rises 
up from the very bottom; but, above the base, they 
freely communicate with each other. ‘Their inner 
surface is marked by numerous elevations and hollows, 
of a most irregular arrangement, besides which a 
small plate, originating in the partition at the base, 
but standing at right angles to it, curves upwards, 
and cuts each valve imperfectly into two cells; so 
that, what with the partition at the base, and the 
plates at right angles with it, the interior of the 


104 LETTER XXXV. 


nut is, before it is opened, cut into four incomplete 
cells.* 

In the centre, where these imperfect plates cross 
each other, stands the seed, which in growing adapts 
itself both to the plates themselves, and to the inequa- 
lities in the lining of the nut, so that when full grown 
it is four-lobed, and deeply divided all over by irregu- 
lar fissures (fig. 6.). 

The seed, like the ovule, stands erect in the cavity 
of the nut; but the embryo is inverted, its base or 
radicle (fig. 6. a.) being at the point of the seed. ‘The 
cotyledons are applied face to face, and each partici- 
pates in the convolutions of the other, until they meet 
the elevated point of the central plate on which the 
seed rests; thence they separate in a downward di- 
rection, and consequently each pair of shrivelled seed- 
lobes consists of one cotyledon only. 


* Tn technical language this nut must be described as consisting of 
two opposite connate carpels, whose margins at the base are turned in- 
wards towards the placenta, whence they are partially produced as far 
as the back of the cavity of the carpel, forming an adhesion with it, and 


half dividing the cavity into two spurious cells. 


105 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXVI. 


I. Tue Horse-cuesnut Tripe.—l. A panicle of flowers of the 
Pink Horse-chesnut (/Esculus rosea).—2. The stamens and disk 
(a) of one of the flowers.—3. The ovary, with the oue-sided disk 
(a) at its base.—4. A longitudinal section of the ovary, shewing the 
ovules in their two different positions—5. A stamen.—6. A seed- 
vessel, natural size—7. A seed; a-the scar or hilum; b the conical 
projection on one side of the scar, indicating the position of the 
radicle. 

Il. Toe Waxtnur Trise.—1. A portion of a twig of the Com- 
_mon Walnut (Juglans regia), with a stamen-bearing catkin.—2. 
One of the stamen-bearing flowers, in the position in which it hangs 
in the catkin.—3. A stamen.—4. Two pistil-bearing flowers; a the 
calyx, 5 the petals.—5. A longitudinal section of one of these flowers ; 
a the ovule, 4 the calyx, ¢ one of the petals.—6. A ripe seed, 
with a portion of its side cut out to shew the radicle at a.—7. A 
ripe fruit—8. A nut; a the apex; 6 the base. 


LETTER XXXVI. 


THE HOUSELEEK TRIBE—PURIFICATION OF THE AIR 
BY PLANTS—THE SAXIFRAGE TRIBE. 


weeeee 


Plate XX XVIT. 


POLO OO OTOL LOE OCCT LOO LOL OTA EO TOD 


FTouseleek (Sempervivum tectorum) is a very com- 
mon plant upon the roofs of cottages, and on old walls 
in the country. Its fleshy, starry leaves, are cooling 
and juicy ; and, hence, the peasantry employ them as 
an application upon burns, or in other cases where the 
skin is inflamed. It is one of those species which are 
capable of growing in the most dry and exposed situa- 
tions, often attracting its food from the atmosphere 
much more than from the scanty source that its roots 
have access to. It is usually planted by being enclosed 
in a lump of moist clay, which is stuck upon the naked 
tiles of a cottage. In such a situation, the young 
plant first secures itself by putting forth a few roots 
into the clay, and then gives birth to a number of little 
starry clusters of leaves, which surround their parent, 
and overshadow the place where the roots are to conti- 
nue to develope: in the first instance, protecting it from 
the glare of the sun, and afterwards forming, by their 
decay, a soft vegetable mould, into which other roots 
may penetrate. 

They are enabled to effect this by the power which 


The Houseleeh Iride 


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THE HOUSELEEK TRIBE. 107 


they, in common with all other plants, but in a higher 
degree, possess of abstracting from the atmosphere its 
impure air, or carbonic acid, which they convert from 
a gaseous into a solid state, by separating the charcoal 
or solidifiable portion, and liberating the vital air or 
oxygen that was combined with it. By this wondrous 
process, living plants become the great purifiers of the 
air we breathe, and it appears quite certain, that if it 
were not for them the earth would soon become so pes- 
tiferous as to be uninhabitable. 

All nature is in a continual state of decay and reno- 
vation. ‘The perishing remains of animals and plants 
exhale putrid effluvia, which mix with the atmosphere 
and refider it impure; the incessant action of respira- 
tion through the whole animal world, increases the im- 
purity by abstracting the vital air or oxygen, and sub- 
stituting foul air or carbonic acid. ‘This combined 
action has been going on from the beginning of the 
present order of created things, and yet it does not 
appear that the air we breathe is less suited to our 
constitutions now than it was in the beginning. This 
‘Is owing to the agency of plants, which, existing 
wherever animals or man can exist, are perpetually at 
hand to catch up and consume the impure particles of 
the atmosphere as fast as they are generated, and by 
fixing the carbonaceous part in their own systems, and 
again liberating the vital air or oxygen, with which the 
former was in combination, they restore to the air all 
the purity it had lost. 

Here, then, you have another of those admirable 
proofs of wisdom and design that meet the philosophical 


108 LETTER XXXVI. 


observer at every step. Plants are Nature’s eternal 
laboratories for the decomposition of all that would 
be injurious to man and other animals—the means 
by which the nicest equipoise is maintamed between 
two most important opposite principles. Hence it is, 
that the most tiny blade of grass, or the most obscure 
weed, becomes in the hands of Providence an effi- 
cient means of working out the great design of the 
creation. 

This is not a phenomenon lable to derangement or 
interruption, but arranged with the most admirable 
precision in every portion of its details. ‘Thus, for 
example, although it is through the agency of leaves 
that the salubrious effect upon the air is brought 
about; yet we are not to suppose, that when the 
leaves have dropped from the trees, and the forest 
exhibits nothing but bare and naked branches, this 
agency is diminished. Leaves fall off indeed in win- 
ter, but at that time the corruption of the air, by the 
putrefaction of organized matter, is either arrested 
or very much diminished, and the green carpet which, 
even in the driest countries, springs up at that season, 
presents an elaborating surface of immeasurable ex- 
tent, and amply sufficient to consume such gaseous 
impurities as may then be engendered. On the other 
hand, in the spring, when an elevated temperature sets 
rapidly at liberty the elastic impurities that the winter 
had bound in chains, leaves, too, are again produced 
with renewed vigour, and still carry off from the atmo- 
sphere all that the rapidly decaymg matter is mingling 
with it, separating for themselves what man is inca- 


THE HOUSELEEK TRIBE. 109 


pable of respiring, and generating in its room in infi- 
nite abundance that vital air or oxygen, without which 
living things would perish. 

Hence, in bright floods, the Vital air expands, 

And with concentric spheres involves the lands ; 

Pervades the swarming seas, and heaving earths, 

Where teeming nature breeds her myriad births ; 

Fills the fine lungs of all that breathe or bud, 

Warms the new heart, and dyes the gushing blood ; 

With life’s first spark inspires the organic frame, 

And, as it wastes, renews the subtile flame. 

These very beautiful lines are from the Botanic 
Garden of Darwin, a writer of an ingenious and phi- 
losophical turn of mind, whose poetry is now forgotten, 
although it has some splendid passages, and contains 
numerous descriptions of natural phenomena, expressed 
in language remarkable alike for its magnificence, 
and for its fidelity to what were, in the author’s time, 
considered facts. Darwin, unfortunately, adjusted his 
natural phenomena to the unintelligible Rosicrucian 
machinery of gnomes, sylphs, nymphs, and salaman- 
ders, and this, together with the little knowledge that 
general readers possess of the facts his poetry was n- 
tended to illustrate, has been the cause of his poetical 
writings having fallen into neglect. I would, however, 
recommend you to read his Botanic Garden, especially 
the first part, called «The Economy of Vegetation ;” 
you can easily pass by the tiresome Rosicrucian agency, 
and the remainder you will find extremely well worthy 
the perusal. But toreturn from our digression. 

The property possessed by the common Houseleek, 
of growing on dry exposed roofs and walls, is_partici- 


110 LETTER XRT, 


pated im by a numerous kindred. In Teneriffe, where 
the genus Sempervivum is very common, the species, 
which are often shrubs of some size, not only occupy 
the steep cliffs and rocks in the neighbourhood of the 
sea, but actually, by their prodigious abundance, con- 
ceal the old gothic mansions of the interior of the 
island, overspreading the walls, and in the flowering sea- 
son making them glow with the most brilliant golden 
tmts; for the Houseleeks of Teneriffe have yellow 
flowers, while those of Europe have them of a rosy 
purple colour. 

Such habits are indeed characteristic of allthis tribe. 
In this country, the various races of Sedums, or Stone- 
crops, are constantly found in such situations ; Sedum 
acre in particular, spreads its scaly stems and shining 
yellow starry flowers over the tops of walls in some 
places near London, and the White Stonecrop is equally 
abundant in others. An obscure little moss-like an- 
nual, ‘Tillea muscosa, overruns bleak, stony, naked 
commons, here and there ; and on the grey stone walls 
of the valleys of the Wye and the Dee, and of the 
west and south-west of England, the graceful Vavel- 
wort (Umbilicus pendulinus) rears its delicate bells 
of green and gold. 

Besides these plants, /ose-wort (Rhodiola rosea) 
puts up its purple heads of flowers in the woods, and by 
its terrestrial habit establishes the connection between 
the Houseleek tribe and the commoner forms of vege- 
tation. 

No tribe of plants can be more easily known than 
this; and the White Stonecrop (Sedum album, Plate 


THE HOUSELEEK TRIBE. ti 


XXXVII. 1.) illustrates its structure perfectly. It 
has small, alternate, succulent, blunt leaves, between 
lear and oblong. Its flowers are white, and arranged 
im a compact cyme. The calyx (fig. 5.) is an olive- 
green, fleshy cup, delicately streaked with crimson, 
and divided into five, blunt, shallow lobes. ‘The petals 
also are five, white, spreading, narrow, and sharp- 
pointed (fig. 2). Within these, from below the car- 
pels, grow ten stamens, of which half are opposite the 
petals, and the other half opposite the lobes of the 
calyx. At the foot of each carpel ( fig. 3.) there is a 
minute, yellow, flat, stalked gland, the end of whichseems 
as if cut off (fig. 4.). The carpels have no adhesion to 
each other, are five in number, and stand opposite 
the petals, with which they agree in colour, size, and 
very much even in shape, except that they are rolled 
up, and taper much more to a point. The fruit is only 
a slight change from the flower ; the calyx and petals 
have lost their brillancy, are shrivelled and hang down 
( fig. 7.), the stamens are gone, and the carpels have 
assumed a pale brown hue; they open at their inner 
edge (fig. 8.), and expose the seeds, which are small, 
smooth, and oval, and hang from their edges ina single 
row, upon short curved stalks (fig. 9.). The embryo 
(fig. 11.) is white, fleshy, and taper, and is tightly 
fitted by the seed-skin, its radicle pomting to the 
stalk of the seed. 

The differences thatmark the other British genera of 
the Stonecrop Tribe are easy enough toremember. 7illea 
consists of minute moss-like plants, having only three 
or four petals and stamens, and no scales at the foot of 


112 LETTER XXXVI. 


the carpels. Mavel-wort has the petals glued together 
by their edges into a little drooping bell. /tose-wort has 
only four petals and eight stamens. Houseleck has from 
six to twenty sepals and petals, twice as many stamens, 
and its scales are usually lacerated at the edge. 


A consideration of the last mentioned plants ne- 
cessarily leads to that of the Sazifrage Tribe, of which 
so many species occur in northern and mountainous 
countries, occupying the tops of walls, the sides, and 
even summits of mountains, the depths of wooded din- 
gles, the sides of trickling streams, and even the re- 
cesses of the wildest bogs. ‘They are remarkable for 
the exquisite neatness of their flowers, which are occa- 
sionally yellow or purple, but more generally snowy 
white, their pureness of colour being sometimes in- 
creased rather than destroyed by minute spots of the 
most clear and delicate crimson. 

London Pride (Robertsonia umbrosa), which, al- 
though a native of the Yorkshire and Irish mountains, 
is so patient of smoke and impure air as to have de- 
rived its name from that circumstance, is one of the com- 
monest species in cultivation, occurring in cottage gar- 
dens as frequently as daisies and primroses. You will 
know it byitsround crenelled leaves, which are collected 
into little green roses, from the centre of which rises a 
graceful, reddish, branching panicle, the ends of whose 
slender branches are tipped by the most delicate little 
star-like flowers of pink and white. Another species 
(Leiogyne granulata) is common on banks and in 
hedges in May, peeping up from among grass and 


THE SAXIFRAGE TRIBE. 113 


weeds, with its snow-white flowers drooping at the 
end of a long stem, scantily clothed with kidney- 
shaped few-lobed leaves. A third, the Three-fingered 
Saxifrage (Saxifraga tridactylites) springs up from the 
crest of walls, one of the earliest harbingers of spring. 
Let us take the latter for examination. 

Three-fingered Saxifrage (Plate XX XVII. 2.) isa 
small annual, not much above three inches high, of a dull 
reddish brown in its foliage, which, as well as the stems 
and calyxes, is covered all over with glandular hairs of 
the same colour. Its lower leaves are divided into three 
tolerably regular lobes, whence its name; but those 
near the top of the little stems are undivided. ‘The 
stem is quite unbranched, except near the top, where 
it divides into two or three forks, each of which is ter- 
minated by a single white flower. The calyx (fig. 2.) 
is oblong, and divided at the edge into five ovate lobes. 
There are five blunt white petals, originating from the 
side of the calyx; and ten short stamens placed also 
upon the calyx in a row after the petals (fig. 3.). The 
anthers are roundish flat cases, on short stiff filaments 
(fig. 5.). The pistil consists of a two-celled oblong 
ovary, which grows to the side of the calyx, almost te 
its top (fig. 3.), and then divides into two distinct, 
though short, styles, whose stigmas are little oval 
fringed spaces ; you will remark that these styles are 
not only quite distinct from each other, but do not even 
spring from the same point, as 1s most usually the case 
in other plants. Each cell of the ovary contains a 
large convex placenta, all over which are placed mi. 
nute ovules (fig. 3 and 4.), 

MOL. Il, i 


114 LETTER XXXVI. 


The fruit (fig. 6.) is a seed-vessel covered by the 
glandular calyx, and opening at the point with two 
spreading valves; to its centre in the side adhere 
the seeds (fig.'7.), which are exceedingly numerous, 
oblong, studded with elevated points (fig. 8. 9.), and 
contain an erect dicotyledonous embryo, enclosed in 
fleshy albumen (fig. 10.). 

Such is the structure of the Three-fingered Saxi- 
frage, and very nearly such is that of the principal part 
of its tribe, with the following very remarkable excep- 
tion. In the plant just examined, the ovary adhered 
to the calyx for nearly all its length; such a cireum- 
stance, if occurring in one genus of a natural group, 
usually exists in all the remainder. But the Saxifrage 
tribe offers an exception to this rule ; for in Leiogyne 
the seed-vessel is altogether free from the calyx, and in 
other cases itis partly free and partly adherent in the 
same genus. 

This occurs in the genus Parnassia, one of the most 
curious of all wild plants, the companion of Sun-dew 
in her marshy haunts, and quite her rival m beauty 
and singularity of structure. ‘The remarkable glands 
of Drosera are confined to her irritable leaves, and dis- 
appear in her flowers. In Parnassia, on the contrary, 
the leaves and stems are hairless, but there is a most 
extraordinary glandular apparatus in the flowers. The 
leaves of this plant are heart-shaped, and cluster round 
the base of the stem. ‘The latter rises to the height 
of a few inches, bearmg below its middle a solitary 
stalkless leaf, similar im form to those of the base, and 
on its point a single nodding white flower, whose petals 


THE SAXIFRAGE TRIBE. PLS 


are so beautifully marked by diverging sunken veins 
of a greenish colour, that a fanciful person might 
liken them to rivulets of chrysoprase flowing over a bed 
of snow. ‘The glandular apparatus I have spoken of, 
consists of five fleshy scales, alternating with the sta- 
mens, and divided at their edge into numerous rays, 
each tipped with one beautiful pellucid greenish gland ; 
so that the whole interior of the flower, when inspected 
from above, seems to bristle with a guard of fairy 
lances, tipped with sparkling jewels. I know of no 
natural object more exquisitely beautiful than this little 
flower, which you may cultivate for a few months by 
keeping its roots in wet bog-moss, and covering it with 
a bell-glass fully exposed to the light. 

If you consider, as I hope you do, the resemblances 
of the tribes that are successively brought to your no- 
tice, with those which have been previously illustrated, 
you will have already noticed the near resemblance 
that exists between the Saxifrage and Rose Tribes. 
Not, indeed, between the Rose and the little plant we 
have just been looking at, but between it and the many 
herbaceous species that belong to the same group with 
the Rose. One of our usual contrasts will make this 
quite clear, and we may as well include in the compa- 
rison the Houseleek ‘Tribe, which participates in the 
relationship of the Saxifrages. 

I will first contrast their resemblances, and then 
their differences, in the same table, so that at one view 
you may perceive why they are placed near each other 
in the system, and why they are separated. 

r2 


116 


SAXIFRAGE TRIBE. 


A. 


“2 


3. 


— 


w 


5. 


. Carpels 


. Leaves 


. Petals 


Leaves alternate. 
Petals distinct. 
Stamens growing 
from the side of the 
calyx. 

more or 


less distinct. 


. Embryo as long as 


the seed. 


sometimes 
with stipules. 
sometimes 


wanting. 


. Carpels inferior or 


superior. 


. Carpels, when ripe, 


diverging and open- 


ingat the point only. 


Embryo in albumen. 


LETTER XXXVI. 


HouseLEEK TRIBE. 


i 
oN 


. Stamens growing 


jee) 


Nn 


— 


iat) 


. Leaves 


Leaves alternate. 
Petals distinct. 


from the side of the 
calyx. 


. Carpels more or 


less distinct. 


. Embryo as long as 


the seed. 


without 
stipules. 


. Petals always pre- 


sent. 


. Carpels superior. 


. Carpels, whenripe, 


opening along their 


whole inner edge. 


5. No albumen. 


— 


co 


5. 


. Leaves 


Rose TRIBE. 


. Leaves alternate. 
. Petals distinct. 


. Stamens growing 


from the side of the 


calyx. 


: Carpels more or 


less distinct. 


. Embryoas long as 


the seed. 


usually 
with stipules. 


. Petals sometimes 


wanting. 


. Carpels inferior or 


superior. 

Carpels, when ripe, 
opening along their 
whole inner or outer 
edge. 


No albumen. 


Hence, it appears, that when the differences be- 
tween these three tribes are strictly mquired into, 
there is nothing that will positively distinguish the 
Saxifrages from the Roses, except the albumen of the 
former, and the peculiar manner in which the two 
carpels spread away from each other, and open at the 
point when ripe. 
As for the Houseleek Tribe, the distinctions by 
which it is known are more numerous and obvious, as 


you will see by studying the table. 


*. 


i , 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXVII. 


I. Toe HovsereeK Trisr.—l. A twig of White Stonecrop (Se~ 
dum album) in flower.—2. A flower magnified.—3. A view of the 
carpels and the scales at their base, the remainder of the flower being 
cut away.—4. One of the scales very highly magnified.—5. A calyx-cup. 
—6. A carpel, more magnified.—7. A ripe fruit, surrounded by the 
withered remains of the calyx and petals.—8. A view of a portion of 
the inner edge of a ripe carpel, shewing the manner in which the seeds 
are attached to its edges.—9. A seed.—10. The same cut across to 
shew the cotyledons.—11. The embryo. 

II. Tue Saxirrace Tripe.—l. A tuft of Three-fingered Saxi- 
frage (Saxifraga tridactylites)—2. A flower magnified—3. The 
same divided longitudinally, shewing the situation of the stamens, and 
the interior of the ovary with its two styles.—4. A transverse section 
of the ovary.—5. A stamen.—6. A ripe seed-vessel—7. The same 
divided longitudinally, to shew the placenta, to which a few seeds are 
still seen hanging.—8. 9. Seeds.—10. A seed divided lengthwise, with 
the embryo lying in the midst of albumen. 


LETTER XXXVIL. 


THE BUCK-THORN TRIBE—SPINES—THE SPURGE TRIBE. 


enenenn ree 


Plate XX XVITIT. 


peererrercerecere tre rrece 


You will sometimes see in curious gardens, you may 
always buy in the nurseries, or should you ever visit 
Greece or Palestine, you will find abundantly in wild 
rocky places, a spiny shrub, of a light and elegant 
aspect when it puts forth its new leaves in the spring, 
but of a savage withered appearance in the autumn, 
when its leaves are dried and discoloured, and its 
branches covered with a profusion of little, round, 
brown, flat seed-vessels, resembling ancient bucklers. 
This plant is called by the modern Greeks, Paliouri; 
by Botanists, Paliurus australis, or aculeatus ; and by 
the English, Christ’s Thorn, because it is said to have 
furnished the crown of thorns for our Saviour. 

As this is a very interesting plant, we will take it 
for an illustration of the Buck-rHorNn ‘Trix, rather 
than the wild hedge-shrub, from which the latter 
derives its name. Its leaves (Plate XXXVIII. 1. 
fig. 1.) are alternately iserted upon slender, flexible 
branches ; they are of an oblong figure, are slightly 
crenelled at the edge, and have three strong veins, 
which run from the one end to the other of the leaf, 
giving it a three-ribbed appearance. ‘The leaves are 


XXXVI. 7. 


Chriots 2 Yor WW. 


LIBRARY: 2 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY. OF 


ror Ul Stele 
‘A 


ay - o nee . 
en, oct ien 


THE BUCK-THORN TRIBE. 119 


placed on slender stalks, and in room of the stipules, 
which are characteristic of the greater part of the 
Tribe, they have a pair of sharp slender spines, which, 
upon the old branches, are curved outwards, and 
become so strong as to render hedges, made from the 
plant, perfectly impenetrable. 

The flowers are pale greenish yellow, small, and 
grow in little stalked clusters, which are much shorter 
than the leaves themselves. ‘They have a flat spread- 
ing calyx, divided into five sharp lobes (fig. 2. b. b.), 
each of which is a little raised in the middle, and ac- 
curately fitted to the edge of its neighbour before the 
flowers expand; so that, although the edges do not 
overlap each other at all, they nevertheless form a com- 
plete closed cavity, in which the stamens and petals are 
enclosed. ‘This is one of the marks of the Buck-thorn 
Tribe, and is called a valvate estwation (See Vol. I. 
p- 168.). 

Alternately with the divisions of the calyx are placed 
five little yellow hoods ( fig. 2. a. a.), which completely 
cover over the stamens ; they are the petals. Oppo- 
site the petals are the five stamens; this is the next 
circumstance that you are particularly to attend to; 
there are very few instances where the stamens are 
opposite the petals, and also of the same number, and 
when it occurs it is always esteemed a structure of 
importance. After the stamens comes a broad, orange- 
coloured, lobed, flat disk (fig. 5. a. & fig. 2.), which 
does not touch the ovary, but simply lies upon the 
spreading sides of the calyx. The ovary is a little 
buried in the calyx at the bottom (fig. 5. 6.), but 


120 LETTER XXXVII. 


otherwise is free ; it contains three cells, in each of 
which is one ascending ovule ; has a three-lobed style, 
and a glandular stigma at the end of each of the lobes. 

This is all the preparation that is made for the sin- 
gular fruit, which I have already described as resem- 
bling an ancient buckler, but which the French com- 
pare to a little head wearmg a broad-brimmed hat, 
whence they call it porte-chapeau. ‘To bring about the 
metamorphosis from the flower to the fruit, the follow- 
ing changes occur ; the calyx—lobes, petals, and sta- 
mens drop off, and the branches of the style shrivel 
up ; this reduces the flower to a roundish centre, sur- 
rounded by a flat-lobed limb. ‘Then the disk, or limb, 
grows broader, the ovary swells, both change their ap- 
pearance, the disk grows the fastest, the whole hardens 
and becomes brown, and the porte-chapeau (fig. 6.) is 
completed. It contains three cells, externally indi- 
cated by three low ridges, and in each cell there is a 
flat seed (fig. 7.). The seed contains an erect embryo, 
with two thin flat cotyledons, placed face to face, and 
a very short conical radicle (fig. 8.). 

In considering the value of the characters thus 
described, as existing in the Christ’s-thorn, you are to 
abstract— 1. the valvate calyx; 2. the five stamens op- 
posite the five hooded petals ; 3. the fleshy disk ; and 
4. the three-celled, half-inferior fruit, with one upright 
seed in each cell; and you will have the characteristic 
features of the Buck-thorn Tribe. ‘This is the more im- 
portant for you to understand, because the ‘Tribe com- 
prehends species differing materially, in some respects, 
from what is found in the Christ’s-thorn itself. For in- 


THE BUCK-THORN TRIBE. 121 


stance, few of the genera have a dry seed-vessel, but they 
more generally bear a succulent fruit; spines also are 
most frequently absent, or at least are alterations of 
buds, and not of stipules; and the leaves are most 
commonly not ribbed; but they all agree in the four 
characters just selected. 

The A laternus, one of those beautifulevergreen shrubs, 
which give such a peculiar charm to English garden 
scenery, Buck-thorn, so useful as a covert for game, 
and the berry-bearing, or black Alder of our copses, 
are various species of the genus Rhamnus, which is 
known from Paliurus by the fruit bemg succulent, the 
leaves ribless, and the stipules spineless. It contains 
several species of some importance for their dyeing 
properties ; sap-green, for instance, 1s a preparation 
of the fruit of Buck-thorn (Rhamnus catharticus) ; 
the “ French berries” of the shops, from which so beau- 
tiful a yellow is obtained, are the unripe fruit of the 
same plant; and yellow morocco leather acquires its 
colour from the juice of Rhamnus infectorius, and other 
southern species. ‘The berries of all are unfit for food, 
and produce extremely unpleasant consequences when 
taken into the stomach. 

Far otherwise is the case with the fruit of the Jwjube 
(Zizyphus Jujuba), which, as I fear you know only too 
well, is mixed with some powerful gluten, and manu- 
factured into lozenges, which are taken in coughs and 
colds. 

Besides these, we have among the ornamental plants 
of the Jujube Tribe, the superb Ceanothus azureus, 
whose innumerable clusters of light-blue flowers have 


122 LETTER XXXVII. 


given quite a new character to our gardens in summer 
and autumn. 

The spines of Christ’s-thorn, remind me that I have 
never yet explaied to you what spines really are. 
What they appear to be, I need not tell you; what 
they are, you may easily learn from a bush of the Sloe, 
on which they are sufficiently numerous. If you 
examine them, you will not fail to see that while a part 
are merely sharp hard points, others have a few 
buds upon their sides, and many more are invested 
with leaves, or even flower-cymes. ‘They are, there- 
fore, mere branches, with their points hardened and 
sharpened. Upon the use of spmes, I find the follow- 
ing remarks by the late Professor Burnett :—<‘ In 
barren, uncultivated tracts of heath, or common land, 
thorny plants abound, e. g. the Sloe (Prunus spimosa), 
the Rest-harrow (Ononis spinosa), the Hawthorn 
(Crategus oxyacantha), the Buck-thorn (Rhamnus), 
the Cockspur-thorn (Crateegus crus Galli), and many 
others. These vegetables, when removed into gardens, 
and cultivated with care, lose all their thorns, which so 
thickly beset them when wild, and bear fruitful 
branches in their stead ; becoming, as Linneus ex- 
pressed it, tamed plants (Plants domite), instead of 
the (Milites or) warriors, to use his language, that 
they were before. Willdenow was the first who ex- 
plained the rationale of this metamorphosis, the first 
who shewed that thorns are abortive buds ; buds which 
a deficiency of nourishment prevented becoming de- 
veloped into branches, and which, when the requisite 
supply of food is present, speedily evolve their latent 


SPINES. 125 


leaves and flowers. But Willdenow did not perceive 
the beautiful adaptation of means to ends, which forms, 
im my opinion, by far the most interesting part of the 
phenomenon. 

‘*In open barren tracts of country, the very cireum- 
stance of the sterility of the soil must prevent the pro- 
duction of many plants, and of those which grow, few 
will be enabled to perfect many seeds. It is necessary, 
therefore, to protect such as are produced from exter- 
mination, by the browzing of cattle, otherwise not only 
would the progeny be cancelled, but also the present 
generation be cut off. And what more beautiful and 
simple expedient could have been devised, than ordain- 
ing that the very barrenness of the soil, which pre- 
cludes the abundant generation by seed, should at the 
very same time, and by the very same means, render 
the abortive buds (abortive for the production of fruit) 
a defensive armour to protect the individual plant, and 
to guard the scantier crop which the half-starved stem 
can bear ?” 

These opinions are borrowed from Darwin (Botanic 
Garden, Vol. ii. 139), and are ingenious enough. I 
am, however, by no means sure that they are well 
founded. But with objections to them, I am not dis- 
posed to entertain you. 

Of course you will not confound the spines or thorns 
of the Buck-thorn, the Christ’s-thorn, the White-thorn, 
the Black-thorn, &c. with the prickles of the Rose, 
because the latter are also popularly called thorns. 
True spines or thorns grow from the wood of plants; 
prickles, or false thorns (aculei), grow, like hairs, from 
the surface of the bark. 


124, LETTER XKXVII. 


Another Tribe, related to the foregoing, is that of the 
Spurces (Plate XX XVIII. 2.); plants distinguished 
from all others by two characters ; the one that of hay- 
ing the stamens in one kind of flower, and the pistil in 
another, the other that of having a fruit which divides, 
when ripe, into three coccoons, whence it is called 
tricoccous. By these peculiarities are combined a 
large number of exceedingly remarkable plants, many 
of which are highly deleterious, most of which are 
exotics, and a very small number of which are either 
wild in our woods, or cultivated in our gardens. 

Among them, feware more remarkable then the Palma 
Christi (Ricinus), with its deeply-lobed, livid, purple 
leaves, and long clusters of stamen-bearing flowers, 
at the base of which are clustered a few spiny pistil- 
liferous ones. Another species is the box-tree; Ta- 
pwoca and Cassava are yielded by a third (Jatropha 
Manihot); and Indian rubber, that curious substance, 
to whose utility there really seems to be no limit, flows 
from the wounded bark of others. Arrows are poisoned 
with the dangerous juice of various species; and there 
is a long succession of them upon the list of fatal or 
useful plants. 

Few plants are more remarkable for their proper- 
ties, than Manchineel (Hippomane Mancinella). 

‘If rests the traveller his weary head, 
Grim Mancinella haunts the mossy bed, 


Brews her black hebenon, and stealing near, 


Pours the curst venom in his tortured ear.” 


It is a West Indian tree, with which the Indians 
poison their arrows ; and the dew that falls from it is 


THE SPURGE TRIBE. 125 


reputed to be so caustic as to blister the skin, and 
produce dangerous ulcers ; whence many persons have 
found their death by only sleeping beneath its branches. 

This statement is contradicted by some writers, and 
doubted by others; but there is no sufficient reason 
for calling it in question. It is perfectly certain that 
the juice, when applied to the skin, produces a pain 
like that of red-hot iron, as is proved by the infamous 
practice of slave-drivers having steeped their scourges 
in Manchineel juice, before they flogged their negroes. 

We have no wild plant that well illustrates the 
structure of this order, except the common Box. But 
we have a most common genus, that to a certain 
degree explains it, and which has a singular struc: 
ture of its own. ‘This, therefore, which is the 
common Spurge or Euphorbia, I have selected for 
illustration. 

The common dwarf Spurge (Euphorbia Peplus, 
Plate XX XVIII. 2.) is an annual, with a slender, 
smooth, branching stem, which discharges in profusion 
a milky juice when wounded. It is a general pro- 
perty of its tribe to do the same. Its leaves are 
obovate, tapering to the base, stalkless, and placed in 
a ring of three, immediately below the branches that 
bear the flowers. The leaves of the flower-branches 
are differently shaped from those of the stem, opposite 
in pairs, ovate with a heart-shaped base, and sharp- 
pointed. 

The flowers either grow in the forks of the branches 
(fig. |. a. a.), or among the uppermost leaves singly. 
They are green cups (fig. 2.), of a most curious con- 


126 LETTER XXXVI: 


formation. ‘The edge of the cup is divided into ten 
lobes, of which five are flat, spreading, glandular, and 
two-horned (jig. 2. a. a. and fig. 3. a. a.), and five 
scale-like, inflected, and fringed with hairs (fig. 3.6. 0.). 
From the very bottom of the cup rises a cluster of 
stamens, of unequal lengths, each haying a joint in the 
middle (fig. 4. a.) ; these stamens rise up one by one, 
or in very small numbers, protrude themselves beyond 
the mouth of the cup, to discharge their pollen, and 
then shrivel up. From their centre springs a long, 
green stalk (fig. 2. b. and fig. 3. c.), curved down- 
wards by the weight of a roundish ovary that grows 
upon its summit. There is a joint in the stalk of the 
ovary of the same nature as that in the stamens. 

The ovary (fig. 6. & 5.), is three-cornered, has 
a double short wing at each angle, and contains one 
pendulous ovule in each cell; two stigmas, or rather 
a two-lobed stigma, rises from each lobe of the ovary. 
The seed-vessel is of the same form as the ovary, and 
separates with elasticity, when ripe, into three cases, 
or cocci, out of each of which falls a single seed. The 
seeds are slightly downy, pale straw-coloured, faintly 
spotted with purple, and unequally six-sided (fig. 5.); 
next the hilum, they have a white fleshy protuberance, 
called a caruncula, and they contain an embryo with 
two short cotyledons, and a long slender radicle lying 
in fleshy albumen. 

What now is the real nature of the parts we have 
been examining? It used to be thought that the green 
cup was a calyx, and that the stamens were of the 
same nature, exactly, as other stamens. But it was 


THE SPURGE TRIBE. 127 


remarked, in course of time, when more exact views of 
Botany began to be entertained, that a joint in the ap- 
parent filament was seen nowhere else, that another 
in the stalk of the ovary was equally unusual; that 
from this joint there sometimes springs a sort of cup- 
like membrane ; that the confused arrangement of the 
stamens was extremely unlike the regularity with 
which those parts are usually inserted; and, finally, that 
no other genus could be found in the tribe of Spurges, 
in which the stamens and the pistil occur in the same 
flower. These considerations led to the discovery that 
the cup is an involucre, with a glandular and lobed 
border, that each stamen is a single flower, consisting 
of a single stamen, without either calyx or corolla, the 
place of those organs being indicated by the jomt in 
their middle, and that the ovary in the centre is, in 
like manner, a single, separate flower; so that the 
apparent flower of a Spurge is in reality a curious 
kind of flower-head. 

Thus you see, that even in so humble and insignifi- 
cant a weed as this, there is much to study and admire. 
In general, the species of Euphorbia are possessed of 
but little beauty, but there are some remarkable ex- 
ceptions ; for their floral leaves, and their cups, or the 
glands upon them, become in certain cases coloured of 
the most vivid tints, scarlet, crimson, emerald-green, or 
white, and as the parts are usually enlarged in propor- 
tion, a most brilliant effect is occasionally produced, 
notwithstanding the universal want of calyx and corolla 
in this tribe. 


128 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXVIII. 


I. Tue Buck-Toorn Trise.—]. A twig of Christ’s-thorn (Pa- 
liurus australis).—2. A flower magnified ; a a petals, b b lobes of the 
calyx.—3. A petal separate.—4. A stamen.—5. A section of the ovary 
and disk; a the disk, 6 the part where the ovary grows to the side of 
the calyx.—6. A ripe fruit, natural size.—7. A seed.—8. A section of 
the same, exhibiting the flat embryo. 

If. Tue Spurce Tripe.—1. The upper part of the stem of Dwarf 
Spurge (Euphorbia Peplus), with the common leaves at the bottom, 
and the floral leaves occupying the remainder of the specimen; @ a 
flower-heads.—2. A flower-head, magnified ; a a glandular divisions of 
the involucre; 6 the pistil-bearing floret in the centre.—3. A section 
of the involucre ; a a the glandular lobes ; 6 4 the inflected lobes ; ¢ the 
stalk of the pistil-bearing central floret, surrounded by the naked stamen- 
bearing florets.—4. A stamen-bearing floret ; a the joint between 6 the 
pedicel, and c the filament.—5. A section across a nearly ripe fruit, 
shewing the short wings at the angles, and the seeds with the embryo 
lying in the centre of the albumen of each.—6. The same ovary, 
uncut.—7. A seed ; a its caruncula.—8. A longitudinal section of the 
same, with the embryo surrounded by albumen, 


rie re 
ae 
ig , 
« 
. 
— 


2. LIBRARY 
F >» OF-THE 
UNIVERSIY OF 


LLINGIS 


eS Haw Be SS 


D 


LETTER XXXVIII. 


THE FLAX TRIBE—ABORTIONS—LINEN 
THE RUE TRIBE. 


Plate XX XTX. 


Amonc the plants that are grown in fields, for their 
utility, the prettiest, I think, is Flax, with its nodding 
blossoms, and its light-blue petals, which, day after 
day, during the flowering season, continue to strew the 
soil with azure fragments. It was once considered a 
member of the Chickweed Tribe, but if you compare it 
with the species of that group, you will wonder, not 
that it is now separated, but that it should ever have 
been associated with them. 

In the first place, its stems and leaves are quite dif- 
ferent; the joints of the former are not swollen, and 
the latter are not opposite (Plate XX XIX. 1. fig. 1.). 
Secondly, its calyx has the sepals in a broken whorl 
(fig. 2), two external, and three internal, which is not 
at all the character of the Chickweeds ; moreover, the 
ovary contains ten cells, in each of which is one pen- 
dulous ovule (fig. 5.); and finally the seed-vessel 
splits into ten sharp-pointed valves ( fig. 6.). ‘These 
circumstances are considered sufficient to elevate the 
Flax into the type of a natural assemblage, consisting 
of scarcely any other genus; and accordingly the Flax 

VOL. Il. K 


130 LETTER XXXVIII. 


Tribe is now admitted into the works of all systematic 
writers. 

Its principal points of agreement with the Chick- 
weed Tribe consist in its having five petals, five 
stamens growing below the ovary (fig. 3.), and five 
distinct styles; all points of slender importance im 
themselves, and in the present instance quite neu- 
tralized by the nature of the predominating differences 
above explained. 

It might have been more correctly allied to the 
Mallow Tribe, for you will remark that its stamens 
grow into a tube (fig. 3.), that it has pim-headed, or, 
as we say, capitate, stigmas, and several one-celled 
carpels, arranged in one whorl round an imaginary 
axis; it moreover agrees with that group in possessing 
mucilaginous properties. But, on the other hand, its 
leaves have no stipules, its calyx is extremely different 
from the valvate one of Mallows, and it has not their 
crumpled folded embryo. 

In fine, it is rather to the Rock Rose ‘Tribe, and 
the plants assembled in that vicinity, that Flax must 
be compared, as you will hereafter see. 

Among the peculiarities of Flax, that do not belong 
to its character as a distinct natural group, but that 
are exclusive to the genus Linum, of which it isa species, 
are two that deserve particularnotice; the one, the abor- 
tion of half its stamens, the other, the occurrence of a 
ten-celled ovary, in connection with five styles. 

You will remark that the five stamens of Flax are 
united by their base into a downy cup (jig. 3.), and 
that five small teeth (fig. 3. a. a.) alternate with them. 


ABORTIONS. 131 


The teeth are the rudiments of stamens, and show that 
there is a tendency in Flax to produce ten stamens, 
but that, owing to some unknown constant cause, only 
five of them are actually developed. ‘This disposition 
to form parts, without actually forming them, is what 
Botanists call abortion ; andis one of the most common 
ofall phenomena. The knowledge of the fact is of great 
importance, because it helps us to reconcile apparently 
contradictory circumstances, and to reduce, within 
fixed rules, the laws that regulate the imumerable 
modifications and combinations of the organs of plants. 
One or two examples will make this clearer to you. 

It is an established axiom that the divisions or parts 
of each successive whorl of organs, are placed alter- 
nately with those which succeed them. ‘Thus the fol- 
lowing arrangement of letters will show the successive 
positions of the parts of a flower that consists of five 
sepals (S), five petals (P), five stamens (s), and five 
carpels (c); provided the parts were placed in parallel 
rows instead of concentrically— 


S Ss S 5 Ss 


so that the stamens would be opposite the sepals, and 
the carpels opposite the petals. 

But if the number of petals were ten instead of five, 
the position of the stamens, with respect to the sepals, 
would be altered, and the latter would be opposite the 
first or outer row of petals, thus— 

K 2 


132 LETTER XXXVIII. 


S S S S S 

P P P P ed 
P P Ne P Pp 

s s s s S 
c c c c c 


And other changes in proportional numbers would be 
productive of corresponding alterations of position. 
These differences are found of great importance in sys- 
tematic Botany, and every good writer pays the most 
careful attention to them. ‘Their value is very much 
imcreased by considering the nature and degree in 
which abortion takes place, and observing, by the 
manner in which it affects the usual order of succes- 
sion, whether it indicates a tendency to the production 
of more rows of parts than actually develope, or to the 
suppression of a portion of those rows that are in part 
completed, and what relation is really borne to each other 
by the parts that appear, and those that do not develope. 
If you look into this subject practically, you will find 
that the abortion of particular organs, or rows of 
organs, is, Ina greatnumber of cases, the most unerring 
sign by which certain natural groups are distinguished, 
and that the importance of the abortions, in a systematic 
view, 1sin proportion to the degreein which they derange 
the symmetry of the flower, or cause a deviation from 
regular structure. I cannot do better than give you 
several instances of this, by tables similar to the pre- 
ceding, in which the letters have the same value as 
before; those which indicate partial abortions being 
printed in italics, and in asmaller type, and total abor- 
tions being represented by dots. 


ABORTIONS. too 


Let us begin with Flax itself, which offers but a 
slight instance of abortion. Its parts are thus— 


Ss S N S S 

- £ P P Ie 
s s S s s 
c c c c c 


Here the consequence of this presence of the abortive 
row s, is to throw the carpels out of their place, and to 
bring them opposite the sepals, instead of opposite the 
petals. 

The Primrose Tribe shows a deviation of a more 
important nature. It calyx, corolla, and stamens are 
thus— 


In this case the third row, whether belonging to the 
petals or stamens is missing, and the consequence is 
that although the stamens are equal in number to the 
petals they are opposite to them, instead of alternate. 
This also happens in the Buckthorn ‘Tribe, and else- 
where, but I have chosen the Primroses to illustrate 
this sort of irregularity, because that tribe, in the 
instance of the genus Samolus, contains a proof that 
the abortion which theory points out really does exist. 
Its parts are thus— 
5 S S S S 
P P | P P 


134. LETTER XXXVIII. 

These cases, however, are nothing to what occurs 
from abortion in many Endogens. ‘The greater part 
of the Orchis Tribe is thus— 


S S ty) 
IE le P 
> - Ss 
The Arrow-Root Tribe thus— 
S S S 
liz Pe ie 
P P 
F s 
The Ginger Tribe thus 
> S S 
P P Ez 
; P 
s Ss § 
The Banana Tribe thus— 
S Ss S 
P P P 
s S s 
Ss § or. Ss 


which is very nearly in accordance with the ordinary 
structure of Monocotyledonous groups. 

Perhaps, however, there is no more curious case of 
extensive alteration m structure, in consequence of 
abortion, than in the Mint Tribe, of whose flowers 
the following letters express at once the theoretical 
and real composition— 


S S S S S 
Pr P y Ee P 
Ss s s Ss 


THE FLAX TRIBE. 135 


In the Mint Tribe it is especially to be remarked that 
each carpel is divided into two lobes, so that, although 
there are four external partitions in the ovary, yet there 
are only two carpels, which, in fact, correspond with the 
two lobes of the style. That three other carpels are 
undeveloped, is proved by certain cases in which they 
are actually present, in addition to the two ordinary 
ones; in such instances the ovary consists of ten lobes, 
and the style is divided into five little segments. 

This fact brings me back to the second subject, 
which, I have already said, deserves particular notice 
in the Flax; namely, the ten cells of the ovary, and 
the five styles. I need scarcely now repeat, that, 
under all circumstances, the number of styles corres- 
ponds with the number of carpels of which the pistil is 
composed, or of the lobes of the stigma when the 
styles are all consolidated, provided any lobes are 
discoverable. As in the Mint Tribe, under ordinary 
circumstances, there are four lobes of the ovary, and 
two lobes of the stigma, it therefore follows, that each 
carpel is two-lobed; and I have just explained that 
certain monstrous cases prove that such is really the 
fact. Now suppose that two such lobes are consoli- 
dated, we then have carpels each with two cells, as in 
the Vervain Tribe, and this is only what we find in 
the Flax. You will observe, however, that although 
in the latter plant there are two cells to each carpel, 
yet the dissepiment that divides them is imperfect (fig. 
5. aa); so that, although, for the purpose of illustra- 
tion, I haye supposed that each carpel of the Flax may 
be formed by the consolidation of two lobes, yet it is 


136 LETTER XXXVIII. 


more probable that in reality its peculiarity is simply 
owing to the projection of a short plate from the back 
into the cavity of each cell. 

Common Flax (Linum usitatissimum), as its name 
imports, is the plant from which dimen is manufactured. 
Its stems are soaked for along while in water, until the 
cellular substance rots away, and then the tough fibres 
that remain behind are cleaned, dressed, and converted 
into linen thread. You are doubtless aware of the 
great superiority of linen over cotton thread, in regard 
to durability and toughness. ‘This is owing to the 
different nature of the organized substance from which 
they are prepared. ‘The part of the Flax that remains 
after maceration is its woody tubes, the toughest and 
strongest part of the vegetable fabric, and that to 
which all plants owe their flexibility and strength. It 
is the part which enables the leaf to bear the violence 
of the storm without injury, which gives its value to 
timber, and which enables the cane and the lancewood 
to bend so freely without breaking. Cotton, on the 
contrary, is merely the hair that grows upon the 
seed of the Cotton plant, andis a form of that cel- 
lular substance which constitutes the parenchyma of 
leaves, the delicacy of flowers, and the pulpiness of 
fruit, which fills up the interstices between the woody 
tubes, and holds together the simewy framework of 
vegetation. 


Garden Rue (Ruta graveolens, Plate XX XIX. 2.) 
is the type of a very extensive natural group, called, 
after it, the Rue Trise. It consists of plants having 


THE RUE TRIBE. 137 


a powerful, and usually a nauseous, odour, and their 
leaves filled with transparent dots ( fig. 7.), in conse- 
quence of their secreting an essential oil, which renders 
them valuable in cases of spasms. 

Rue itself, Fraxinella, covered with fragrant 
glands, which are said to exhale their volatile parts in 
such abundance in hot weather as to render the atmo- 
sphere that surrounds it inflammable, and different 
sorts of Diosma and Correa are those which are most 
common in gardens. ‘The remainder are principally 
exotics, which are little known in cultivation. Rue 
itself will give you a good idea of their general nature. 

It is a perennial, hairless, glaucous plant, having a 
strong, peculiar, disagreeable odour. Its leaves are 
unequally pinnated, rather fleshy, crenelled, and dotted 
like those of an Orange. The flowers are greenish- 
yellow, and grow in cymes at the end of the branches. 
The calyx (Plate XXXIX. 2. fig. 2.) consists of four 
spreading, toothletted sepals. There are four petals, 
with short claws, and a very concave toothletted end. 
Eight spreading stamens arise from a fleshy ring sur- 
rounding the ovary, and having about sixteen pits 
impressed upon it, in a circle, a little above the origin 
of the stamens (fig. 2.). Upon this ring is planted 
a conical, four-lobed, uneven ovary, consisting of four 
cells, which are not parallel, as*usually is the case, 
but spread away from each other at the base, around 
a fleshy elevated centre (fig. 3. a.). Altogether the 
mass of fleshy matter, upon which the cells of the 
ovary are placed, is so considerable as to have in sys- 
tematic Botany a particular name, that of gynobase. 


138 LETTER XXXVIII. 


The cells of the ovary contain about four ovules, placed 
upon a prominent placenta (fig. 3. 6.). The style 
rises from between the points of the lobes of the 
ovary, and is divided at its apex into four obscure 
teeth. The seed-vessel is a light brown dry capsule, 
splitting into four coccoons (fig. 4. a.), in each of 
which is a single seed, and which surround the 
thickened hardened gynobase (fig. 4. 6.). “The seeds 
are dark brown, pitted, angular bodies (fig. 5.), con- 
taining an embryo lying in the midst of fleshy albu- 
men ( fig. 6.). 

Such is the structure of Garden Rue, and the same 
is found more or less in the numerous genera referred 
to its tribe. As you are little likely to meet with 
many of them, I will only remark that some are 
curious, as Correa, for having their petals united 
into a tube, like that of a Monopetalous plant, and 
that they do not differ much from the Orange Tribe 
(Vol. I. p. 86. Plate VI. 2.), except in their dry split- 
ting fruit, their great fleshy gynobase, and their albu- 
minous seeds. 


139 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXIX. 


I. Tue Fuax Tripe.—l. A twig of perennial Flax (Linum 
perenne).—2. A magnified flower, from which the petals have dropped 
off.—3. The stamens and styles ; aa teeth representing abortive sta- 
mens.—4. The ovary with the bases of the five styles.—5. A section of 
the ovary; aa the imperfect dissepiments.—6. A ripe seed-vessel, 
with its valves separated.—7. A seed.—8. A section of the same, 
shewing the embryo. 

Il. THe Rue Trise.—l. Garden Rue (Ruta graveolens).—2. A 
magnified flower, without the petals; a the ring of pits above the 
stamens.—3. A section of the ovary; a the gynobase, b the placente. 
—4. A seed-vessel, from which the seeds have fallen; a the coccoons, 
6 the gynobase.-—5. A ripe seed.—6. The same cut longitudinally to 
stiew the embryo and albumen; a the hilum.—7. The tip of a leaf, 
with its pellucid dots. 


LETTER XXXIX. 


THE BUCKWHEAT TRIBE—THE GOOSEFOOT TRIBE. 


ema 


oenee 


Plate XL. 


eee erecerecce 


No plants are more common by road-sides, and in 
waste places, than the species of the genera Polygo- 
num and Rumex; or in flower-gardens, than Persi- 
carias; or in the kitchen garden, than Sorrels and 
Rhubarbs. These plants belong to the BuckwHEaT 
Tripe (Polygonacee), and will next demand our 
attention. 

You will, no doubt, remember the Nettle Tribe (Vol. 
I. Plate XI. p. 147.), with its hairy calyxes without 
petals, its flowers of two sorts, and its single ovary, 
containing one upright seed; nor do I imagine the 
gorgeous Amaranths to be forgotten, whose calyx is 
so much like that of the Nettles, only that its colours 
are so gay, its flowers all of the same sort, and 
the leaves without stipules. The Buckwheat Tribe 
is in many respects like these, but at the same time 
essentially different. Take for an example Kvnot-grass 
(Polygonum aviculare), species of which are sure to 
be met with on every neglected garden walk, or hard 
bank, where few other plants could exist at all. There 
it expands its numerous slender arms, embracing the 
hard earth, and pressing to its bosom the cold rock 


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THE BUCKWHEAT TRIBE. L41 


on which nothing else can grow, equally regardless of 
hunger and parching thirst. Nay, do not start at 
this strange description ; it is literally as well as figu- 
ratively true. 

Knot-grass (Polygonum aviculare, Plate XL. 1.) 
is one of the commonest of European weeds; where- 
ever a seed can take root in the neighbourhood of 
man, and where nothing else, not even a Stonecrop, 
can fix itself, there you will find Knot-grass, lying 
prostrate on the soil, and continually spreading away 
from a common centre. Its stems are slender, and 
wiry ; its leaves are narrow and oblong, with a curious 
pair of fringed, ribbed stipules at the base (fig. 2. a.), 
surrounding the stem, and forming a sort of tube 
through which its joints pass; such stipules, which 
are very uncommon, have obtained the technical name 
of ochree or boots. ‘The flowers are sessile and axil- 
lary in the bosom of the leaves. They consist (fig. 
3.) of a calyx divided into five imbricated parts, which 
unite at the base in an herbaceous tube. Into the 
throat of the tube are inserted seven stamens (fig. 4.), 
of equal length, but having no certain position with 
respect to the lobes of the calyx ; constituting how- 
ever, in theory, almost one whorl and a half. The 
ovary (fig 5.) is an oblong, three-cornered body, with 
three separate stigmas, and one erect ovule in its in- 
side. ‘The fruit (fig. 6.) is a three-cornered, hard, 
deep-brown nut, encircled by the calyx, and containing 
a curved embryo lying on one side of some mealy 
albumen (fig. '7.), the radicle of the embryo nearly 
touching the apex of the seed. 


142 LETTER XXXIX. 


It therefore differs from the Nettles in having 
booted stipules, uniform flowers, and triangular fruit, 
and from the Amaranths, in having stipules, trian- 
gular fruit, and an inverted embryo. ‘There is no- 
thing else within your acquaintance with which it is 
necessary to compare it. Hence the Buckwheat 
Tribe, the species of which, however different from 
Knot-grass, agree with it essentially, is a peculiar na- 
tural order, cut off by strong lines of demarcation 
from all that surround it. 

Knot-grass itself, I have already said, is a species 
of Polygonum, and there are many other wild plants 
belonging to the same genus; of these P. hydropiper 
and Persicaria, with their short, rounded spikes of 
pink calyxes, are common examples; in the gardens 
P. orientale, or Garden Persicaria, with its crimson 
panicles, is one of the showiest of annuals ; and in the 
fields Buckwheat, or Beechwheat (Polygonum Fago- 
pyrum), so called from the resemblance of its little 
hard-brown seed-vessels to Beech-mast, with its beau- 
tiful rose-coloured flowers, is commonly cultivated for 
its seeds, of which pheasants are remarkably fond, 
and from which is prepared the flour from which in 
part crumpets are made. 

But these are far from all; Docks, the detestation 
of the farmer, with all their hedge varieties or spe- 
cies, and Sorrels, which the French cooks value se 
much, notwithstanding their unwholesome acidity, 
are different species of Rumex; while Rheum boasts 
of the useful Rhubarbs, whose leaf-stalks afford a 
pleasant substitute for gooseberries in the early spring, 


THE GOOSEFOOT TRIBE. 143 


and of the drug of that name, which is one of the 
greatest preservatives that nature has provided for the 
delicate machinery of man. 

Many other exotic plants equally belong to this 
tribe ; but they are not worth the introduction here. 


Very closely allied to the plants last mentioned, 
are those which constitute the Goosrroor TRIBE 
(Plate XL. 2.), anatural order comprehending such. 
culinary vegetables as Spinach (Spinacia oleracea), 
Orach (Atriplex hortensis), Beet (Beta vulgaris), 
and the like. ‘They are plants whose flowers are 
of an herbaceous or dull red colour, and of a succu- 
lent texture, so that they all are, without exception, 
unattractive species. What Nature has denied to 
their flowers, she sometimes however gives to their 
leaves, which are occasionally stamed with the most 
vivid tints of yellow, purple, crimson, and even rosy 
red, as in the Chard Beet, and the Garden Orach. 
Most, and perhaps all, are suited for cooking as spinach, 
in consequence of the pulpy, tender, sub-mucila- 
ginous quality of their leaves; but, as they differ in 
quality, Spinach itself is generally preferred for the 
table ; none of them, however, are better than the wild 
Sea Beet (Beta maritima), which loves to fix itself 
on the sea-shore at the foot of chalky cliffs, often 
within reach of the spray. 

One of the commonest species is G'oosefoot (Cheno- 
podium album), a grey, powdery, annual weed, which 
springs up on every heap of rubbish, and soon produces 
at the ends of its upright branches numerous clusters 


144 LETTER® SERIX. 


of minute green flowers (Plate XL. 2. fig. 1.), which, 
without changing colour, ripen their seeds, and 
drop them in profusion on the surrounding soil. It is 
scarcely possible to select a plant more unattractive 
than this, and yet, if you will attentively study its 
structure with me, you will find that, in some respects, 
its beauty is of no common order. 

I have already said that it is an annual; its stems 
are angular, and grow about a foot and a half or two 
feet high, producing a few stiff upright branches. 
The leaves are of a dull grey green on the upper side, 
and of a dead glaucous colour on the under side ; they 
are, moreover, powdered with a loose mealy substance, 
which spreads indeed over all the parts of the plant 
exposed to the air, and which seems to be a peculiar 
cutaneous secretion. Viewed under the microscope, 
and illuminated by a ray of bright light thrown from 
above, this secretion gives the plant the most beautiful 
glittering appearance, every part of the surface being 
spangled with what seem fragments of emeralds and 
chrysoprases. The leaves are placed on short stalks, 
and they have a somewhat lozenge-shaped figure, with 
several coarse toothings on their edge. 

The flowers are arranged in compact clusters, pro- 
ceeding from the axils of the leaves. Each, when 
unexpanded (fig. 2.), is round, depressed, marked with 
five prominent, rounded angles, bright green, exqui- 
sitively studded in the hollows between the angles 
with little glittering balls, which have all the appear- 
ance of being consolidated dew; indeed the whole 
flower-bud has much the aspect of a tiny green sea-eqg 


THE GOOSEFOOT TRIBE. 145 


(Echinus). All this pretty show belongs to the calyx, 
which finally unfolds into five, spreading, pale green 
lobes (fig. 3.), with a white pearly border. There are 
no traces of petals. The stamens are five, slightly 
adhering by their bases into a very shallow cup, and 
placed opposite the divisions of the calyx. ‘The ovary 
(fig. 4.) is roundish, superior, with two long hairy 
stigmas, it is one-celled, and contains a single ovule, 
attached to the bottom of the cell by an oblique cord 
(fig. 5.). The seed-vessel is a thin semi-transparent 
bag, which breaks irregularly when ripe, and drops a 
single jet-black flattish seed (fig. 6.), containing an 
embryo, curved round mealy albumen, and pointing 
its radicle to the hilum (fig. 7.). 

In general, plants of the Goosefoot Tribe are so 
similar to this in structure, as to give the student no 
trouble in identifying them ; some, for example, have 
the stamens in one flower, and the pistil in another, 
as Spinage; others have the base of the calyx hardened 
and partially adhering to the ovary, as Beet; but such 
differences are no greater thanoccur inall natural orders. 
There is, however, a wild plant belonging to the Goose- 
foot Tribe, which is so curious in its appearance, as to 
deserve particular mention. It is often brought, from 
the salt-marshes where it grows, to market, under the 
erroneous name of Samphire,* and being prepared 
with spice and vinegar, forms a coarse kind of pickle. 
At first sight you would take this plant, whose real 


* The real Samphire is an Umbelliferous plant, found on the 
chalky cliffs of our southern coast ; it is the Crithmum maritimum of 
Botanists. 


VOL. II. L 


14.6 LETTER XXXIX. 


name is Gilass-wort (Salicornia), to be leafless and 
flowerless, with nothing but jointed brittle stems; for 
its shoots really look as if they were formed only 
of joimts of different lengths strung together. Upon 
looking, however, at the upper end of the jomts you 
will find that each has a pair of opposite slightly pro- 
minent expansions, which stand in the room of leaves; 
and at the end of some of the shoots these expansions 
are closer together, more evident, connected with 
shorter joints, and altogether produce the appearance 
of slender cones. Still no flowers meet the eye. But 
above each of the joints of the cones, you may remark 
three minute scales, placed in such a way as to form a 
triangle ; if with a fine pointed instrument you gently 
remove one of the scales, you will find below it, in a 
little niche, an ovary with a short ragged stigma, and 
one or, occasionally, two stamens. ‘This is the flower, 
of which the external scale is all thatremains to represent 
the calyx. The seed and seed-vessel are something 
like those of Chenopodium, only the former is hairy. 
In Salicornia the ordinary structure of the order is, 
you perceive, interfered with, by the imperfect forma- 
tion of the leaves and calyx, by the number of stamens 
being fewer than usual, and by the peculiar structure 
of the jointed stems. In some other genera the aspect 
of the plants is changed by a curious peculiarity in 
the calyx ; in one plant, when the seed is ripe, that 
part is succulent, and richly coloured with crimson, 
and as the flowers grow in compact clusters, the 
calyxes, readily adhering, form small balls, with 
much the appearance of Strawberries, whence such 


THE GOOSEFOOT TRIBE. 147 


plants are called Strawberry Blite (Blitum). In 
others, the calyx, at the angle where it bends over the 
seed-vessel, expands into membranous wings, elving 
the whole plant a very singular appearance ; this 
occurs in prickly Saltwort (Salsola Kali), a common 
plant on the sands of the sea-coast in some parts of 
this country, and sometimes collected for the sake of 
its ashes, which yield common soda in abundance. A 
tendency to this enlargement of the calyx exists even 
in common Beet, whose seed-vessel is surrounded by 
the calyx, half in a hardened, half in a spongy state. 

Having thus made yourself mistress of the pecu- 
liarities of the Goosefoot Tribe, let me recommend 
you to contrast them with the Nettle Tribe, the Buck- 
wheat Tribe, and the Amaranth Tribe, because all 
those are, in reality, very closely allied to it. Parallel 
columns had better be again employed for comparing 
their differences— 


GOOSEFOOT 
TRIBE. 


AMARANTH 
TRIBE. 


BuCcKWHEAT 


NETTLE TRIBE. TRIBE. 


Stipules membra- | Stipules membra- 
| 
nous and dis- 


Stipules o. Stipules o. 
nous and ochre- 


tinct. ate. 


Flowers of two 
sorts. 


Flowers of one 


| sort. dry, membra- 
nous, and sur- 
rounded by 


bracts. 


Flowers uniform, | Flowers either 


uniform, or of 
two sorts, soft. 
succulent, and 
not surrounded 


by bracts. 
Seeds round. Seeds round. 
Radicle at the 


point of the 


| Seeds triangular. 
| Radicle at the 
point of the 


| Seeds round. 
Radicle atthe base | Radicle at the base 


of the seed. of the seed. 


| 
seed. seed, 


Hence it appears that the Nettles and Buckwheats 
have stipules, and the radicle at the point of the seed; 
L 2 


~ 


148 LETTER XXXIX. 


while the Amaranths and Goosefoots have no stipules, 
and the radicle at the base of the seed. At the same 
time the Buckwheats differ from the Nettles in having 
ochreate stipules, uniform flowers, and triangular seeds ; 
while the Goosefoots differ from the Amaranths in 
having herbaceous, succulent, naked flowers, and in 
very little else. For this reason some persons would 
combine the two latter Natural Orders ; but they are 
recognized as distinct by almost all Botanists. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XL. 


I. Toe Buckwueat Trise.—l. A piece of Knot-grass (Polygo- 
num aviculare).—2. A single leaf with its ochreate stipules, a, which 
are rent asunder by the expansion of the stem that they surrounded.— 
3. A flower.—4. The same split open, shewing seven stamens, arising 
from a fleshy tube of the calyx.—5. An ovary cut open, shewing the 
three stigmas, and the single erect ovule-—6. A ripe seed-vessel, or nut, 
invested by the remains of the calyx.—7. A section of the seed, shew- 
ing the embryo lying on one side of the mealy albumen. 

II. Tue Gooseroot Tripe.—l. A twig of Goosefoot (Cheno- 
podium album),—2. A flower before unfolding —3. An open calyx, 
with the stamens and ovary.—4. An ovary, with the two stigmas.—5. 
The same cut open, and shewing the ovule resting on its end.—§. A 
seed, with the torn remains of the membranous seed-vessel investing it. 
—7. A section of the seed, shewing the curved embryo, and the mealy 


albumen in its centre. 


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LETTER XL. 


THE MEZEREUM TRIBE —THE CINNAMON TRIBE. 


ree POLLLODLL DS 


(Plate X LI.) 


PROPRIO OO OL OTOL OLE ALTE 


Ir is by no means an unusual thing for the prettiest 
and most splendid species of the vegetable kingdom 
to conceal the deadliest qualities. Rhododendrons, 
Azaleas, and Kalmias, in the Heath Tribe, Blood- 
flowers (Hemanthus) and Crinums in the Narcissus 
Tribe, Foxglove in its own tribe, and Ranunculuses, 
Aconites, and Larkspurs, in that of the Crowfoot 
are familiar instances of this; to which you now 
may add that of the various pretty species of the 
Mezereum Trise. The plant from which the name 
is derived (Daphne Mezereum), the Spurge Laurel 
(Daphne Laureola), the lovely trailing Cneorum 
(Daphne Cneorum), and various other species of the 
same genus, together with the Gnidias, and Struthiolas 
of the greenhouse, areall acrid, suspicious plants, and in 
some instances extremely dangerous. The berries of 
the Mezereum and the Spurge Laurel are fatal poisons 
to man, although birds feed upon them uninjured; the 
bark of all the species is so acrid, that if moistened and 
bound down upon the skin it raises blisters, and even 
the perfume of those which have fragrant flowers will 
often produce fainting in persons with delicate neryes, 


150 LETTER Xie 


The ingenuity of the fair sex has not failed to profit by 
these qualities, for the Tartar ladies, availing them- 
selves of the acrid property of the Daphne leaves, rub 
them over their cheeks instead of rouge, to raise a 
gentle colour in the skin. 

Allthis while I am talking of these plants as if you 
knew them, and I think it impossible but some of them 
must have been already seen by you. Spurge Laurel 
is a common evergreen in shrubberies, with deep green, 
shining leaves, little pale green flowers, almost con- 
cealed by the leaves, and black drupes resembling 
those of the common Laurel (Prunus Laurocerasus) 
externally. 

Still more common is Mezereum, and much more 
striking, for it bears its rose-coloured or white flowers 
upon naked branches late in autumn or early in the 
spring, and at that time there is no shrub that at all 
resembles it. We will take this species for examina- 
tion. The rosy flowers do not owe their colour to the 
presence of petals, but are merely composed of a calyx 
(Plate XLI. 1. fig. 2.), having four spreading lobes 
half-united in a tube, hairy externally and slightly 
pitted all over the inner surface. ‘This arises from 
the looseness of the parenchyma which connects the 
two surfaces of the calyx, and which is so easily dis- 
turbed, that you may without difficulty separate the 
whole of the inner from the whole of the outer surface, 
dividing the calyx into two cups. Hence it has been 
thought by some, that in reality the calyx and corolla 
are really both present in Daphne, but naturally 
glued together. Such an opinion is however neces- 


THE MEZEREUM TRIBE. 151 


sarily unfounded, as will be obvious to you, if you call 
to mind the rule I sometime since explained to you 
(page 131), that all the parts of a flower naturally 
alternate with each other. Nevertheless, M. Dunal, 
a French Botanist, has founded upon this and some 
other cases, a theory of wnlining in flowers (dédouble- 
ment), imagining that in all cases the corolla is pro- 
duced by an unlining of the calyx! 

But to return to our Mezereum. Eight stamens 
in two rows, one above the other, are placed on the 
tube of the calyx ; and at the bottom of the cup is a 
superior one-celled ovary (fig. 2.), with a nearly ses- 
sile, tufted stigma (fig. 3.). In the inside of the 
ovary hangs a single ovule (fig. 3. c.), with a foramen 
(page 73, and fig. 3. b.), so conspicuous, that it may 
be almost seen by the naked eye. When you first 
pull the ovary of the Mezereum in pieces you will 
probably imagine that the ovule is enveloped in a 
loose hairy bag (fig. 3. a.) ; but upon scrutinizing it 
more narrowly, you will find that the supposed bag 
is merely the lining of the ovary, which readily sepa- 
rates from the shell and clings more or less to the 
ovule ; so that you see the disposition to wnline, which 
is found in the calyx, is also conspicuous in the 
ovary. <A section of the ovary, carefully made in a 
vertical direction (fig. 3.), exhibits this very clearly, 
presenting the appearance of two cavities, one above 
the other, the upper one smooth and containing the 
ovule, the lower one bristling with crystalline points, 
and empty. 

The ripe fruit of Mezereum is red and succulent 


152 LETTER XL. 


( fig. 4.) ; it has a slight depression at the point where 
the stigma was, and it contains a single suspended 
seed (fig. 5.). The embryo is a large almond-like 
(amygdaloid) kernel, with two fleshy plano-convex 
cotyledons, and a radicle pointing to the apex of the 
fruit (fig. 6.). 

All the genera you are likely to meet with, belong- 
ing to the Mezereum Tribe, are very like the above 
‘n nearly every respect ;_ the most important differences 
to remember, are, that some of them, as Gnidia, have 
little scales in the mouth of the calyx, and that it is 
only in a few that the fruit is succulent: more gene- 
rally it is hard, dry, and nut-like. 

You have before had instances of the toughness of 
the bark of plants, and of its fitness to be manufac- 
tured into cordage or similar materials. All the 
Daphnes, and indeed the Tribe, partake of this qua- 
lity; they are, however, chiefly known for the produc- 
tion of paper and lace. In China and India, a coarse 
paper is manufactured from the inner bark of two or 
three species ; and in the West Indies, Nature pro- 
duces a beautiful description of lace in that of another 
kind. You seem incredulous; and yet I know not 
wherefore you should be, considering how many 
greater wonders you have already witnessed among 
plants. I repeat it, in Jamaica a natural lace, of fine 
quality, is produced ready manufactured, in the bark 
of the Lagetto Tree; so fine, indeed, that ruffles, a 
frill, and cravat were cut from it, and sent as a present 
to King Charles II. This substance is not so often 
seen in England as its beauty and curiosity would 


Im 


THE CINNAMON TRIBE. 153 


have led one to expect ; in Jamaica it is well known, 
and, by a little contrivance, the most beautiful brushes 
are readily prepared from it. In reality it consists 
of the thin layers of the inner bark of the tree, a 
little stretched sideways, so as to separate the parallel 
fibres, and to give their meshes a lozenge form. Bota- 
nically considered, it is the very same substance as 
that from which are manufactured the common Russia 
Mats, in which furniture is packed, and of which 
Gardeners make use under the name of Bast; only 
instead of being coarse and brown, it is extremely fine 
and white. 


It is not a little curious, that of the reputed Laurels 
so very common in gardens, namely, the Common 
Laurel, the Portugal Laurel, the Spurge Laurel, the 
Alexandrian Laurel, the two first should be Cherries, 
the third a Daphne, the fourth a Ruscus, and not one 
of them in truth a Laurel; while, on the contrary, a 
species of true Laurel, actually cultivated very com- 
monly, is not recognised popularly, but has the name 
of Sweet Bay. For this reason, although it would 
have been more correct to have called the assemblage 
of plants to which the latter belongs the Laurel 
Tribe, yet, to avoid confusion, it is better to drop the 
name Laurel altogether, and to designate the plants 
by a title about which there can be no mistake. We 
will, therefore, call the Lauraceous plants of Botanists 
the Cinnamon Tribe, because the aromatic spice of 
that name is yielded by some of the species, and 


154 LETTER XL. 


because an aromatic principle, of an analogous kind, 
is found throughout the remainder. 

These useful and valuable plants are most curious 
in their structure, as the Sweet Bay (Laurus nobilis) 
will shew you. It is, as you are aware, a hardy ever- 
green bush, whose leaves, when bruised, give out a 
grateful spicy odour, and which are in consequence 
extensively used in making pastiles and sweetmeats. 
It grows wild in the south and middle of Europe, 
especially in France and Italy, where it is a great 
ornament of scenery. 

The flowers break out of little brown scaly balls, 
in the axils of the leaves (Plate XLI. 2. fig. 1.), are 
of a pale cream colour, and have the following struc- 
ture. The calyx is divided into four deep lobes, 
which spring from the top of a hairy stalk (fig. 2. & 
4.). There are no petals. ‘Some flowers are sterile, 
some fertile. ‘The sterile flowers (fig. 2.) contain 
eight stamens of a most singular nature; each has a 
flat, linear filament, with a stalked, kidney-shaped 
gland, growing from each side near the base (fig. 3. 
c.), and a two-celled anther, the valves of which sepa- 
rate from their cells, like those of the Barberry (page 
12.), and curve back by a sort of hinge at the upper 
end of each cell. It is found by the structure of other 
genera, that the kidney-shaped glands are abortive 
stamens ; consequently, in this apparently simple flower, 
there is an irregularity of a very extensive kind, four 
petals and sixteen stamens being either abortive or 
rudimentary, as is expressed by the following scheme.* 


* See page 132. 


THE CINNAMON TRIBE. 155 


S S S S 
S S s S 

S s S Ss 
s s & s 

s 8 s $s 


In the fertile flowers (fig. 4.) there are only four im- 
perfect stamens, each with two, small, rounded lobes 
in the middle, and a superior ovary containing a 
single cell, and terminated by a style surmounted by 
a dilated, purple, glandular stigma (fig. 5.); it con- 
tains a single suspended ovule. The fruit, when 
ripe, is ovate, black, and succulent (fig. 6.), and 
contains a single seed, with a thick, almond-shaped 
(amygdaloid ) embryo, whose radicle points to the apex 
of the fruit (fig. 7. & 8.). 

It will be plain to you at once that this plant corres- 
ponds in every respect with the Mezereum Tribe, 
as in the absence of petals, the number of lobes of the 
calyx, the number of perfect stamens, and the whole 
structure of the ovary and fruit. But, on the other 
hand, it differs in the presence of so many abortive 
stamens, in its anthers with recurved valves, and _ its 
aromatic qualities. It is, however, well worth notice, 
that although we use Cinnamon and Cassia habitually 
in small quantities, yet that this Tribe possesses in 
abundance a powerful acrid juice, which assimilates 
its secretions very much to those of the Mezereum 
Tribe. 

The genera differ chiefly in the number, form, and 
position of the abortive stamens, in the number of cells 


156 LETTER XL. 


of the anther, in the form, &c. of the calyx, and some 
other minor circumstances. ‘They are, however, so 
seldom seen alive in Europe, in a flowering state, that 
I need not occupy your time about them. Consider 
them aromatic Mezereum-like plants, with anthers 
bursting by recurved valves, and you cannot easily 
forget them. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XII. 


I. THe Mezereum Trise.—l. A twig of common Mezereum 
(Daphne Mezereum).—2. One of its calyxes cut open, and shewing the 
stamensand ovary.—3. An ovary cut perpendicularly, to shew the cavity @ 
in the pericarp, the ovule ¢, and its foramen 6.—4.* and 5.* stamens.— 
4, A cluster of ripe fruit, natural sizea—5. A section of a fruit, shewing 
the seed.—6. The embryo. 

II. Toe Cinnamon Trise.—l. The Sweet Bay (Laurus nobilis). 
—2. A sterile flower, with its 8 glandular stamens.—3. A stamen 
separated ; a one of the valves of the anther, 6 another quite rolled 
back, ¢ abortive stamens, resembling glands.—4. A fertile flower, with 
the four abortive stamens surrounding the ovary.—5. A section of the 
ovary —6. A ripe fruit.—7. A longitudinal section of the same, shewing 
the radicle at the apex.—8. A transverse section of the same, shewing 


the two cotyledons cut across. 


pale ban +a 
eae 


XLIL 1. 


Tribe. 


g VWLCOBE 


Sey, 


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LETTER XLI. 


THE PRIMROSE TRIBE—THE EPACRIS TRIBE. 


Plate XLII. 


Tue Primerose, Primrose, or First Rose of Spring, 
the Cowslip, the Oxlip, the Auricula, or Powdered 
Beau, are so associated with our earliest recollections 
as children, that we never, to the last hour of our 
existence, entirely cease to look upon them with plea- 
sure. Nor indeed is it possible, independently of all 
our remembrances of infancy, to behold without delight 
a sunny bank all light and life with tufts of sweet 
yellow flowers, when nature elsewhere remains in the 
garb of death and winter. 

All these pretty plants are so well known to you, 
that I might as well have left you to study them by 
themselves, without any remark beyond what has 
already been made upon a former occasion (Vol. I. p. 
187.), if it were not my wish to illustrate in detail 
every natural assemblage that is common enough to 
be likely to fallin your way. Leaving you then to 
refer to our correspondence for the general facts con- 
nected with the Primrose Trise, let us carefully note 
down the structure of the Cowslip blossom (Plate 
MEAT Ay. 

You know that the flowers grow in little nodding 
clusters, or umbels, from the top of a round, brittle 


158 “LETTER XLI. 


stalk, which raises them above the low herbage that 
surrounds them. Each has a tubular, angular, pale 
green calyx, with five teeth corresponding with the 
projecting angles. ‘The corolla (fig. 2.) is mono- 
petalous, salver-shaped (that is with a cylindrical tube 
and flat border), and a little contracted near the 
middle of its tube; its border is divided into five lobes, 
each of which is slit or notched at the end. The 
anthers are almost without filaments, and stand side 
by side half way down the.tube of the corolla; not, 
however, alternately with its lobes, as usually happens, 
but opposite to them. Perhaps you will not very 
readily ascertain this without assistance; either of 
two modes will enable you to do so. Look down into 
the tube without disturbing any of the parts, and you 
will then see that each stamen stands in front of a lobe 
of the corolla; or, if this does not satisfy you, cut 
open the corolla, hold it against the light, and you will 
then see that each anther stands upon a delicate, half- 
transparent vein, which passes through the middle of 
a lobe of the corolla (fig. 2.). ‘This is an important 
fact, for two reasons. In the first place, it enables 
you to distinguish a plant of the Primrose Tribe with 
certainty from all other monopetalous tribes, except 
one ; and secondly, it indicates a great degree of irre- 
gularity in the flower ; for by the rule I have lately 
given you (page 132.) it appears, that, simple and 
unchanged as the Cowslip flower apparently is, it 
really has five of its stamens, namely, the first row, 
absent, those which make their appearance belonging 
to the second row. 


THE PRIMROSE TRIBE. 159 


The only other monopetalous tribe in which the 
stamens are opposite the lobes of the corolla, is the 
Myrsinaceous, to which belong the Ardisias, so fre- 
quently seen in stoves; but all these are exotics, and 
are bushes or trees, by which circumstance they are 
at once known from the Primrose ‘Tribe, without 
taking other circumstances into account. 

The ovary of the Cowslip (fig. 5.) is a superior 
hollow case, of atop-shaped form, and marked by ten 
longitudinal furrows, of which five are more con- 
spicuous than the others; it is surmounted by a slender 
thread-shaped style, which terminates in a round pin- 
headed stigma. From the number of furrows on the 
outside of the ovary you would naturally expect that it 
should contain five cells; but upon opening it you 
can only discern a single cavity, with a free central 
placenta (fig. 6. a.), loaded with ovules in the middle. 
If, however, you were to dissect the ovary, when very 
young, you would then find five cells cut off from each 
other by five partitions; but long before the flower 
opens these partitions are broken and disappear, and 
the consequence is that the placenta grows up in the 
middle without any connection with the sides of the 
ovary. 

The fruit of the Cowslip is well worth an attentive 
study. It is invested with the dry, dead, but firm and 
little altered calyx (fig. '7.), at the bottom of which 
stands a seed-vessel that splits at the point, with ten 
teeth which turn backwards to allow the seeds to fall 
out ; its centre is occupied by a brown hard cone, 
over which the seeds are closely arranged. Each seed 


160 LETTER XLI. 


is a little, rough, deep-brown, angular body (fig. 8.), 
adhering to the placenta by the middle ; and contain- 
ing a dicotyledonous embryo lying across the hilum 
( fig. 9.) ; that is, not turning to the hilum either the 
radicle or the end of the cotyledons. 

The genera of the Primrose Tribe are very distinctly 
marked. Cyclamen or Sowbread, for instance, has the 
lobes of its corolla bent back, and when the flower is 
past it gently twists its peduncle till it becomes so 
short as to bury the tough leathery seed-vessel in the 
earth. ‘This is a most curious economy, the cause or 
object of which is quite unknown. Anagallis, or the 
Pimpernel, has the corolla divided into five deep lobes, 
and its seed-vessel opens by a lid like a little soap-box. 
Hottonia or Water-violet, with its feathery leaves, and 
beautiful pink flowers, has a five-parted calyx, the 
corolla of a Primrose, and a round seed-vessel, with 
five compact valves. Brookweed(Samolus Valerandi), 
with its tassels of small white flowers, has a partially 
inferior ovary, and five additional rudimentary stamens 
in the form of tapering threads. And the remainder 
are equally easily recognized. 

And now you know as much about the Primrose 
Tribe, in general, as it is necessary for me to tell you 
in this correspondence; for the rest you will, of course, 
refer to systematic works. I must, however, before I 
quit the subject, tell you of one delicate, tender, little, 
lovely thing, that is seldom seen, except by Botanists, 
but which you might easily cultivate in your window, 
under a bell-glass. ‘This is the Bog Pimpernel; a 
small, trailing, light green plant, with stamens only a 


THE EPACRIS TRIBE. 161 


few inches long, and covered with tiny roundish leaves, 
most beautifully dotted on their underside. ‘The 
flowers of this plant are little rose-coloured bells, stand- 
ing upright upon slender stalks, which afterwards 
curve downwards to bury the fruit. Its stamens are 
so thickly covered with the most delicate, glittering, 
jointed, entangled hairs, that they look like five yellow 
anthers, standing on the top of a tuft of silver wool. 
Where the Sun-dew, Parnassia, Butterwort, and all 
those curious little bog plants occur, there you will be 
sure to meet with this charming species, which Bota- 
nists have truly called the delicate (Anagallis tenella), 
for we have no more fragile flower im all our British 


Flora. 


From these we turn to plants so like the Heath 
Tribe (Vol. 1. page 158. Plate XII. 1.) that it is use- 
less for me to do more than point out in what they 
differ. I am adverting to the Epacris Tribe. In the 
smallness of their leaves, the brittleness of their stems, 
their uses to man, and the gayness of their flowers, in 
the clearness and brilliancy of their colours, and in 
general points of organization, in short, in all that 
ean strike the casual observer, the two tribes are 
alike; one being the pride of Europe and Africa, the 
other the glory of the hills and wastes of the Austra- 
lian continent and islands. Several species are com- 
mon in greenhouses, particularly of the genus Epacris, 
with their bells of pink, or red, or white, of Styphelias 
and Dracophyllums, with their long tubes of crimson and 
other colours, or of White beards(Leucopogons ), with the 

VOL. II, M 


162 LETTER XLI. 


mouths of their corolla stuffed with snow-white hairs. 
The Pink Epacris (Epacris ruscifolia, Plate XLII. 
2. fig. 1.) is one of the easiest to procure. 

It forms a slender heath-like plant, with stiff, ovate, 
sharp-pointed leaves, in the bosoms of the uppermost 
of which the flowers are closely arranged upon short 
stalks, covered completely by scale-like bracts (fig. 2.) 
which one can hardly distinguish from the five-leaved 
calyx. The tubular bell-shaped corolla, with a short, 
spreading, five-lobed border, the superior ovary with 
five many-seeded cells (fig. 6.), the hypogynous scales, 
( fig. 5. a.), the single style, the obscurely lobed stigma, 
and, finally, the dry seed-vessel, containing a vast 
quantity of minute seeds ( fig. 8.), are all characters in 
accordance with those of the Heath Tribe. But in 
the stamens there is a material difference ; they arise 
from the side of the corolla ( fig. 3.) in this species, 
but sometimes they agree with the Heath Tribe in 
growing from below the ovary: the anthers are always 
one-celled, opening by two valves (fig. 4. a.), and 
never two-celled, opening by five valves, or two pores. 
It must be confessed, these are not points of much 
importance, but Botanists seem generally agreed upon 
recognizing the Epacris [rise as distinct from that 
of Heaths, and we may as well swim with the stream, 
as it is really of no practical importance whether the 
Epacris Tribe is considered a distinct assemblage, 
or a mere section of the Heath ‘Tribe. 

In general, both the Epacris and Heath Tribes have 
a dry seed-vessel; but as we have the succulent 
Arbutus and Cranberry among the latter, so we have 


163 


the Australian Cranberry (Lissanthe sapida and 
Astroloma humifusum), and Van Diemen’s Island Cur- 
rants (various Leucopogons) among the former. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLII. 


I. THe Primrose Trise.—l. A cluster of Common Cowslip 
(Primula veris) flowers.—2. A corolla opened to shew the position of 
the stamens, with respect to the lobes of the corolla.—3. A calyx with 
a portion cut away to shew the ovary, style, and stigma.—4. A stamen. 
—5. A pistil very much magnified; in this figure the furrows of the 
ovary, and the glandular hairs of the style, are distinctly seen.—6. A 
cross section of an ovary, with the free central placenta at a.—7. Half 
a seed-vessel, invested with the calyx; a a are the teeth-like valves by 
which it opens, and & the central free placenta covered with seeds.—8. 
A ripe seed, much magnified; a the hilum.—9. A section of the same 
shewing the embryo lying in hard albumen ; a the hilum. 

Il. Tue Epacris Trige.—l. Pink Epacris (Epacris ruscifolia).— 
2. A flower with the scale-like bracts that cover its stalk.—3. A corolla 
cut open, shewing the stamens, ovary, and style.—4. A one-celled 


anther opening by two granular valves, a a.—5. A pistil, with five 
scales a, surrounding the base of the ovary.—6. A cross section of the 
ovary, shewing the five cells, and many-seeded placente.—7 A fruit 
of Epacris (after Gertner).—8. A section of it shewing the placente 
and seeds—9. A seed cut in half lengthwise, shewing the embryo lying 
in albumen, with the radicle turned to the hilum. 


M 2 


LETTER XLII. 


THE GREEK VALERIAN TRIBE—THE TRUMPET-FLOWER 
TRIBE. 


(Plate XLITI.) 


ww POPPI LALIC LIPO DDL IDOLS DE 


WHEN we were studying the Bindweed ‘Tribe (Vol. 
I. p. 161.), I neglected to mention a set of common 
plants, closely allied to it, but in general not twiners ; 
namely, the Greek VaLeriaAn Trise, or Polemoni- 
aceous Plants. Let me now proceed to supply that 
omission. 

You cannot but be acquainted with the genus Phloz, 
or, as the old gardeners called it, Lychnidea, the spe- 
cies of which are among the showiest of common peren- 
nials, whether they rise erect from the ground with 
broad, deep-green, opposite leaves, and dense clusters 
of purple flowers, terminating the branches, or lie 
prostrate among rock-work, with their slender stems 
covered by sharp scales, and a few neat lilac or white 
blossoms just raising themselves from the soil. 

Cobea is another well known genus, that overruns 
the forests of Mexico with its annual stems, and which, 
on that account, has been long since transferred to the 
gardens of this country, where it will grow between 

-two and three hundred feet in a smgle summer, com- 
pletely hiding a large extent of treillage with its 


XLI/L. 1. 


She Grecdk Valeuan Sribe. 


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UNIVERSITY OF SLTINCIS |. wig 


THE GREEK VALERIAN TRIBE. 165 


blueish green leaves, and huge, bell-shaped, dingy, 
greenish-purple blossoms. 

With these, Botanists associate the Gilias, with 
their heads of blue, or red, or party-coloured flowers, 
and finely cut leaves, the Collomias with their small 
buff or brick-red blossoms, peeping from among close 
glandular bracts, Zpomopsis with its imumerable pen- 
dent tubes of scarlet and gold, and the Greek Valerians 
(Polemonium), or Jacob’s Ladder plants, the old- 
fashioned gardeners’ pets, with their spreading fern- 
like leaves, and nodding bells of blue or white. 

We will, however, study none of these. Let us ra- 
ther examine a plant of this charming annual lately 
imported by the Horticultural Society from California 
(Plate XLILI. 1.) ; it is called Many-coloured Slender- 
tube (Leptosiphon androsaceus). Observe how deli- 
cately it is frosted by little glandular hairs; millions 
of millions of these bodies must be perpetually em- 
ployed in separating from the blood of the Slender- 
tube the matter which Nature requires it to part 
with. Its leaves are divided into deep narrow lobes, 
_ which all spring from near the same point. _ Its flowers 
stand in an umbel, at the end of a slender stalk, and 
have their bases buried among narrow green bracts. 
Each calyx (fig. 3.) has five, narrow, sharp-pointed, 
hairy lobes, connected into a short tube by a thin 
web (fig. 3. a.). The corolla has a slender, reddish- 
brown tube, with a spreading, five-lobed, pale, lilac 
border, yellow at the base, and within the tube deep- 
chocolate brown (fig. 2.). It has five anthers, sta- 
tioned on short filaments at the orifice of the tube, 


166 LETTER XLII. 


and projecting a little way beyond it. The ovary is 
superior, contains three cells (fig. 5.), in each of which 
are about six ovules adhering to a placenta in the axis. 
The style is thread-shaped, and terminated by three 
narrow lobes ( fig. 3.). ‘The seed-vessel (fig. 6.). opens 
into three valves, bearing the dissepiments in their 
middle. The seeds are spongy, oval bodies (fig. 7.), 
with a thick skin, and contain an erect embryo (fig. 
8.) without albumen. 

If you contrast this with a Bindweed, you will remark 
that in that plant, the corolla has its lobes plaited to- 
gether, the stigma two-lobed, more or less, while here 
the lobes of the corolla are imbricated, and the stigma 
three-lobed. These distinctions are the most material 
for separating the two tribes, for we cannot make 
great use of the twining habit of the Bindweeds, first, 
because Cobea, which is of the tribe now under consi- 
deration, also twines, and, secondly, because many Bind- 
weeds do not twine. 

I have already adverted to the existence of a genus 
called Collomia; it consists of species of little beauty ; 
but in one of them, Collomia linearis, the micro- 
scope reveals one of the most marvellous phenomena 
I am acquainted with. ‘The seeds of this plant are 
small, dry, hard and brown. If you look at them 
ever so carefully while dry, you will find nothing that 
can lead you to suspect the existence, in their skin, 
of any peculiar mechanism. But place them under a 
microscope, and, while watching them, gently float 
them in water. Ina few moments the fluid will appear 
in rapid motion, thousands of silvery threads will be 


THE TRUMPET-FLOWER TRIBE. 167 


seen lancing themselves into the water, and unrolling 
in all directions, and the whole field of the micro- 
scope will, on a sudden, present a spectacle of action, 
life, and movement. This is owing to the expansion 
of a vast quantity of spiral threads, which, when dry, 
are contracted and glued to the surface of the seed, 
but which are suddenly set at liberty upon the appli- 
cation of water. 


Another set of plants, that I must bring you 
acquainted with, is the Trumpst-rFLowEer ‘TRIBE. 
You have long since studied the Foxglove Tribe, and 
you remember that it consists of herbs, with an erect 
habit, and little angular or round seeds, the embryo of 
which is surrounded by albumen. Very nearly akin 
to these are certain exotic plants, most of which are 
trees or shrubs, with flowers like those of the Fox- 
gloves in all respects, only that they are usually larger, 
in most instances with a twining or climbing mode of 
growth, and with large flat pods, some of which are 
as much as two or three feet long, filled with flat 
thin-winged seeds, containing an embryo without 
albumen. 

The common genus of these plants is named Big- 
nonia, or the Zrumpet-flower, whence the Tribe has 
gained its usual designation. All that belong to it are 
climbing plants, as is indeed every species common 
in gardens, except the noble Catalpa (Catalpa syringi- 
folia), which forms a tree as large as an apple tree, 
and almost as hardy, its boughs loaded in summer 
with heaps of magnificent white and lilac flowers. 


168 LETTER XLII. 


The other trees of the Tribe are, with the exception 
of Jacaranda, with their airy, graceful, fern-like foliage, 
unknown in Europe in a living state; they inhabit 
the forests of India and America. 

The footing Trumpet-flower (Bignonia radicans), 
is so very common, that there is hardly a vil- 
lage in England where some garden does not 
contain it. We will, therefore, select it for study. 
Mr. Elliot tells us, that it is common in the 
damp rich soil of Carolina, “climbing over build- 
ings and the loftiest trees, throwing out radicles all 
along the stem, by which it attaches itself firmly 
to walls, fences, and the bark of trees.” In _ this 
country it is much less vigorous, owing no doubt to 
the greater coldness and dryness of our climate. It 
has opposite pinnated leaves, the leaflets of which are 
ovate, taper-pointed, and sawed (Plate XLIII. 2. fig. 
1.). Its flowers, of the richest brown-red or blood-red, 
and of a fleshy consistence, grow in clusters from the 
ends of short stiff peduncles. ‘The calyx is a fleshy 
cup, divided into five sharp, somewhat triangular 
teeth. The corolla is funnel-shaped, between two and 
three inches long, with a border divided into five 
roundish, rather unequal lobes. Five stamens spring 
from the tube of the corolla; of these, two are longer 
than two others, all four being furnished with diverg- 
ing sharp-pointed anthers, and the fifth (fig. 2. a.) 
is merely a rudimentary tooth, analogous to what you 
find in the flower of a Pentstemon. ‘The ovary is 
seated upon a thick, yellow, fleshy cushion or disk 
( fig. 3. a.), and consists of two cells, containing many 


THE TRUMPET-FLOWER TRIBE. 169 


ovules spread over the surface of a central placenta 
(fig. 4.). The ovary gradually tapers into a stiff, 
curved style, ending in a stigma composed of two thin 
plates. 

Thus far the Bignonia is so like a plant of the 
Foxglove Tribe, that no Botanist can point out a 
distinction. It is otherwise with the fruit; in this 
species it is described as a very long tapering pod, 
filled with winged seeds; in other species its seeds 
are as follows: a somewhat wedge-shaped, rounded, 
flat centre (fig. 5.), comprehending a two-lobed em- 
bryo, without albumen (fig. 6.), is surrounded by a 
thin, delicate membrane, or wing, the whole substance 
of which consists of small, semi-transparent cells, 
round the sides of which is twisted a spiral, silver 
thread. It is here that the great difference between 
the Tribes of Foxglove and Trumpet-flower resides. 
The former has no wing to its seeds, nor any thing like 
the form of a long pod in its fruit. Remembering 
this then, you never need confound the one with the 
other. 

Eccremocarpus scaber, is one of the prettiest of the 
Bignonia Tribe. From the hedges and thickets about 
Valparaiso, it has been transferred to our gardens, 
where it survives moderate winters without injury. 
The curious rough pods of this plant produce an 
abundance of the winged seeds of the Bignonias, and 
are well worth a careful examination. 


170 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLIII. 


I. Tue Greek VaLertaAN Tripe.—l. A cluster of the flowers of 
the Many-coloured Slender-tube (Leptosiphon androsaceus).—2., 
The tube of a corolla cut open, to shew the origin of the stamens.— 
3. The calyx, style, and stigmas; a the membranous web that connects 
the lobes.—4. A longitudinal section of an ovary.—35. A transverse 
section of the same.—6. A ripe capsule, much magnified.—7. A seed. 
—8. The same cut through longitudinally, to show the embryo. 

Il. Tue Trumper-rLower Trige.—l. A cluster of flowers of the 
rooting Trumpet-flower (Bignonia radicans).—2. A portion of the 
tube of the corolla, cut open to shew the origin of the stamens; a the 
fifth rudimentary stamen.—3. The pistil; a its disk, b the ovary.— 
4, A transverse section of the ovary.—5. A ripe seed of Bignonia 
indica.—6. Its embryo ; a the two-lobed cotyledons, 6 the radicle. 


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LETTER XLIII. 


THE MADDER TRIBE—THE SCABIOUS TRIBE. 


Plate XLIV. 


Ce aaaad 


Your old housekeeper is right; on this occasion 
she proves a better Botanist than her mistress. There 
is no danger whatever in using Goosegrass for a sieve; 
and it is quite true that it was formerly so employed, 
until the cheapness of wire-work superseded it. Only 
take a handful of the dry stems, press them into a 
bowl without a bottom, or into a colander, and pour 
over them any thing you have a mind to strain. You 
will see that the liquid will come away as clear as if 
it had been poured through a sieve. Goosegrass 
possesses this property in consequence of its surface 
being covered over with myriads of fine hairs, har- 
dened and curved by the hand of nature into hooks 
(Plate XLIV. 1. fig.4.&7.), which catch up and hold 
fast whatever may float in water, with just as much 
certainty as it would be intercepted by the close 
meshes of a sieve. As to its harmless qualities, you 
need have no fear upon that score, if you remark its 
near affinity to the Honeysuckle and Coffee ‘Tribes 
(Vol. I. p. 176.). Let me just note down the principal 
points that are worthy of notice in its structure. 

Goosegrass, Cleavers, Whiptongue (Galium Aparine), 


172 LETTER XLIII. 


or whatever else its name may be, is a herbaceous plant, 
usually growing in hedges and dry ditches, where its long, 
angular, brittle stems can readily find something tocatch 
hold of, so as to be supported a little above the earth. 
The angles of its stem, the upper surface and edges of 
its leaves, and its fruit, are closely beset with the hard, 
stiff, hooked hairs, above referred to; they catch hold 
of the clothes of the passer-by, and adhere to him 
like a bur, on which account the Greeks used to call 
this plant the Philanthropist. The leaves are arranged 
six, seven, or eight, in a whorl; they are of a narrow 
figure, somewhat broader towards the upper end, ter- 
minate in a hard spiny point (fig. 7. a.), and have no 
stipules. The flowers grow from the bosoms of the 
uppermost leaves of the branchlets, in the form of tiny, 
white, four-rayed stars. The calyx is the slightest 
little edge that you can imagine, placed on the top of 
a small hairy ball, which is the ovary. ‘The corolla 
(fig. 1.) is valvate and monopetalous, but almost 
divided into four parts, so slight is the degree of con- 
nection between the petals. From the recesses of the 
corolla spring four stamens (fig. 1. & 2.). The ovary 
is a round, inferior, hairy ball, containing two cells, in 
both of which is one ovule, rising up from a very 
short stalk (fig. 2.); it is surmounted by two styles, 
each bearing a single round stigma. On the out- 
side of the styles, between them and the corolla, is 
a green, fleshy, two-lobed disk (fig. 2.a.). The fruit 
consists of a pair of kidney-shaped achznia, or nuts, 
bristly all over with stiff hooks, separated at the base 
by the hardened and widened axis, and curving inwards 


THE MADDER TRIBE. Wis 


till their points nearly meet (fig. 4.). In the inside 
of each nut is a curved seed, containing a small embryo 
of the same figure, embedded in hard horny albu- 
men, and turning its radicle towards the base (fig. 5.). 

You cannot have a better example than this of the 
great importance of botanical knowledge, in forming 
a correct opinion upon many common questions. A 
person, unacquainted with the science, would not com- 
prehend the possibility of this Goosegrass being allied 
to the Honeysuckle (Vol. I. Plate XIV.), and yet I 
shall shew you, by the plaimest evidence, that such is 
an indisputable fact. 

Gather a specimen of any common Honeysuckle, 
and compare it with another of the Snowberry, which 
Linnzus used to consider a sort of Honeysuckle; then 
place by the side of the Snowberry a Laurustinus in 
flower, and by the Laurustinus a bunch of Elder 
blossoms. You will then find, although the Honey- 
suckle and the Elder at first seemed very dissimilar, 
yet that the two may be gradually connected by so 
few as these two transitions. 

Next, compare the Goosegrass with the Elder. 
The former has a small, white, regular, monopetalous 
corolla, with as many stamens as lobes, an inferior 
ovary, containing one seed in each cell, seeds with an 
embryo buried in horny albumen, and opposite leaves 
without stipules; in all these important points the Elder 
coincides. That plant, indeed, is a small tree, with 
pinnated leaves, large cymes of flowers, three cells to 
the ovary, and succulent fruit, while Goosegrass is a 
prostrate, annual, rough-stemmed plant, with simple 


174 LETTER XLIII. 


whorled leaves, solitary flowers, two cells to the ovary, 
and dry bur-like fruit. But such matters are irre- 
levant to the discussion; for as there is no question as 
to the great difference of these two plants, the point to 
determine is, whether they are related to each other, 
and, if so, in what degree. It is impossible to deny 
that the points of coincidence which I have named to 
you, are sufficient to establish the fact of their re- 
lationship; and, therefore, as it is proved that the 
Goosegrass is related to the Elder, and the Elder to 
the Honeysuckle, it follows that the Goosegrass and 
the Honeysuckle are also related to each other; but 
not equally. The Elder and the Honeysuckle are 
plants of the same natural Order (or Tribe, as it has 
pleased us to call natural Orders in this correspon- 
dence), and may therefore be said to be related to each 
other in the first degree; Goosegrass, on the contrary, 
belongs to a distinct natural Order, and therefore can- 
not be related in more than the second degree. 

Goosegrass may, in fact, be taken as the type of 
the Mapper Trise, the peculiar distinctions of which 
are drawn from the angular stems, whorled leaves, and 
double one-seeded ovary. Madder itself (Rubia tinc- 
torum), from the roots of which a valuable dye is 
extracted, is very much like a Galium, but is more 
vigorous in its mode of growth, has larger hooks, and 
a succulent fruit; in which latter respect a greater 
approach is made to the Elder than in the case of 
Bedstraw. 

In the wild places of this country, plants of the 
Madder Tribe abound. The Galiums, of which there 


THE SCABIOUS TRIBE. 175 


are many species, occur on banks, heaths, and even 
walls, and are among the most common of plants. 
One of them, Galium verum, with loose bunches of 
pretty yellow flowers, is, in some counties, called 
Cheese-rennet, because of its having been formerly em- 
ployed to curdle milk. Woodruff, a native rival in 
fragrance to the Heliotrope, is the Asperula odorata; 
it is found occasionally in woods, and is known by the 
long tube to its corolla, and the four small deciduous 
teeth of its calyx; otherwise it is very nearly a Galium. 
Field Madder (Sherardia arvensis) has a little purple 
blossom, and its fruit is terminated by the four per- 
manent teeth of its calyx; it is a common annual in 


dry fields. 


I need not ask if you have forgotten Compound 
flowers (Vol. I. p. 199. Plate XVII. 1.), for they are of 
such common occurrence, that to have had them once 
pointed out is to know them for ever. But I may ask 
if you recollect exactly what their structure is, because 
there are plants very like them at first sight, and 
which you must know how to distinguish. For ex- 
ample, Astrantia, which is one of the Umbelliferous 
Tribe, and Gilia, belonging to the Greek Valerians, 
have their flowers in heads, and might be taken for 
Compound flowers by an incautious observer. ‘They 
are not, however, so likely to deceive you as the plants 
of the Scasrous Trise to which I have once already 
casually referred (Vol. I. p. 208.), and of which it is 
now time to speak more particularly. 

Purple, or Sweet Scabious (Scabiosa atropurpurea), 


176 LETTER XLIII. 


is one of the most beautiful of our annual exotics, with 
its intensely deep purple corollas, and Starry Scabious 
(S. stellata), although not very pretty when in flower, 
is often found in gardens, where it is cultivated for the 
sake of its curious heads of seed-vessels, terminated 
by dry starry cups. In this country, the meadows, 
pastures, and corn-fields, are often enamelled by one or 
two native species, of which we will select what is com- 
monly called the Devil’s-bit Scabious (Seabiosa succisa, 
Plate XLIV.2.); a strange name, which originated in 
a popular belief, in former days, that his Satanic 
majesty bites off the end of its roots; in proof of the 
truth of which, their black colour and abruptly-broken 
extremities are safely appealed to. 

The root-leaves of this plant are obovate and un- 
divided, those of the stem are coarsely toothed, while 
the uppermost are narrow, sharp-pointed at each end, 
and quite destitute of toothing. ‘The flowers are a 
bright clear blue, and collected into round _ balls, 
at the top of long, slender, bristly peduncles (fig. 1.); 
in general appearance they very much resemble those 
of a compound flower, only they have not a distinct 
involucre ; in the exact details of structure there are, 
however, several important differences, as you will see. 
To understand the matter fully, take one single floweret 
away from the others, and study it by itself; the re- 
mainder are like it. In the first place, you will remark, 
that it is subtended by a narrow sharp-pointed bract 
(fig. 2. a.), frmged with long delicate hairs. It 
appears to have a double calyx; the exterior being an 
inferior, pale, greenish-white cup (fig. 2. b.), with five 


THE MADDER TRIBE. 177 


angles and five shallow teeth; the interior (fig. 2. ¢. 
and fig. 4.) being a superior greenish disk, expanded 
into five purple hairy horns; of these two coverings the 
first is a little involucre, of the same nature as that in 
the Mallow (Plate VI. 1. fig. 3. a.), the second is the 
true calyx. The corolla is funnel-shaped, with its 
border divided into four nearly equal lobes (fig. 2); 
there are four stamens, which spread away from each 
other, without at all adhering (fig. 3.) either by the 
filaments or anthers. The ovary is one-celled, and 
what we technically call inferior; but it is a most 
unusual and instructive illustration of the correctness 
of the opinions of modern Botanists as to the real 
nature of a superior calyx (Vol. I. p. 28.). In the 
plant before us the ovary is a thin membranous case 
(fig. 5. b.), surrounded by the sides of the calyx, which, 
however, does not adhere to it, except quite at the 
orifice of its tube; but there the union is so complete 
that no trace of the separation lower down can be seen, 
except upon dissection. The style is a slender thread, 
curved upwards, and bearing a purple, narrow, hammer- 
headed stigma (fig. 4. a.). The ovule hangs pendulous 
from the top of the ovary (fig. 5. a.). The ripe seed- 
vessel is an oval seed-like body, terminated by five 
stiff, brown, hairy horns, and containing a pendulous 
seed, the embryo of which lies in albumen, with its 
radicle pointing to the apex of the seed-vessel (fig. 7.). 

These details shew you that, notwithstanding the 
general resemblance of the Devil’s-bit to a composite 
flower, it differs in having distinct stamens, and a 
pendulous seed, exclusively of all other circumstances. 


VOE. LI. N 


178 LETTER XLIII. 


This is, in reality, the difference between the Z'ribe of 
Composite Flowers, and the Scabious Tribe. 

The most remarkable plant of this natural Order is 
the Teasel (Dipsacus Fullonum), the bracts of which 
are hard and sharp, and project beyond the flowerets, 
rendering the flower-head a cone of formidable spines. 
These heads are used in vast numbers in the carding of 
woollen cloths, and are found superior for that pur- 
pose to any artificial substitute yet invented. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLIV. 


I. Tat Mapper Tripe.—Cleavers, Goose-grass, or Whiptongue 
(Galium Aparine).—1. A magnified flower.—2. A section of the 
same; a the green epigynous disk.—3. A stamen.—4. The ripe fruit.— 
5. A section of one half of a ripe fruit, shewing the embryo lying in 
the hard horny albumen.—6. An embryo separated, and inverted. 

II. Tue Scapious Trise.—1. The Devil’s-bit Scabious (Scabiosa 
succisa).—2. A floweret with the bract a, and the small involucre or 
involucel 6, beyond which the calyx ¢ is seen projecting.—3. A corolla 
cut open.—4, A pistil with the superior calyx; a the stigma.—5. A 
vertical section of the calyx, shewing that the ovary 6 does not adhere 
to its sides, except at the point ; a the ovule-—6. The anther and upper 
part of a filament.—7. A section of a ripe fruit, surmounted by the 
calyx, and shewing the pendulous embryo lying in the midst of 


albumen. 


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LETTER XLIV. 


THE JASMINE TRIBE—THE ASCLEPIAS TRIBE. 


Plate XLV. 


ore. 


I rormerty said something to you concerning the 
difference between the Olive and the Jasmine Tribes 
(Vol. I. p. 168.) ; and perhaps the brief remarks then 
made upon the method of distinguishing them may 
have satisfied you. Nevertheless let us not pass the 
Jasmine by with inattention, for surely so lovely a plant 
deserves something more than a careless glance of 
recognition. 

The White Jasmine (Jasminum officinale), the pride 
of the cottager, and the envy of the citizen, within whose 
smoky streets no art can make it flourish, is a native 
of the mountains of India, whence years ago it found its 
way to the Persians and Arabs, who called it Yasmeen, 
and thence passed to Europe. Its leaves offer a good 
example of what we call unequally pinnated, or pinnated 
with an odd one; that is to say, they consist of several 
pairs of leaflets (Plate XLV. 1.), with an odd leaflet 
at the end. The leaves are opposite each other on the 
stem, and have no stipules. The virgin-white odori- 
ferous flowers grow in little sessile clusters, or umbels, 
at the end of short branchlets. ‘The calyx is inferior 
(fig. 3.), divided into five narrow awl-shaped segments, 
and covered externally with glandular down. ‘The 


nN 2 


180 LETTER XLIV. 


corolla is salver-shaped, with a long yellowish tube, 
and a border divided into five sharp-pointed lobes, 
which do not fit to each other by their very edges as 
in the Olive Tribe, but overlie each other, and are 
twisted together in the bud state (fig. 1. a.); or, in 
fewer words, the estivation is imbricate, and not 
valvate. 

There are only two stamens, arising from near the 
middle of the tube of the corolla (fig. 2.). “This is a 
degree of irregularity much beyond that of the Olive 
Tribe, which has only four segments of the corolla, 
and is more analogous to what occurs in the Fox- 
glove and neighbouring Tribes. In many species 
of Jasmine it is carried further still; for the corolla 
has sometimes six, seven, eight, or even twelve diyi- 
sions, and it must therefore be considered to have a 
tendency to form two or even three rows of petals ; 
or else to develope a part of its stamens in the form of 
petals, and even to produce a second row of true petals 
in addition. ‘Thus the scheme of organization in com- 


mon Jasmine will be— 


S S S Ss Ss 
| Jf ie r P 
: s S : 
in a Jasmine with seven segments to its corolla— 
S S S S S 
P P B P P 
° s Ss s s 
and with twelve segments— 
S S S S Ss 
P r ie iB \ 
P P P E r 


THE JASMINE TRIBE. 181 


so that those species only can be considered complete, 
in the number of their parts, whose corollas consist 
of eight or thirteen segments. 

The ovary of the Jasmine (fig. 3.) is superior, and 
contains two cells, with an ascending ovule in each ; 
another mark of distinction from the Olive Tribe, in 
which the ovules are pendulous (Plate XIII. 2. fig. 
5.). The style is erect and slender; the stigma a 
fleshy, glandular, two-lobed club. The fruit (Plate 
XLV. 1. fig. 4.) is a black oblong berry, containing 
one perfect and one abortive seed (fig.5.) ; the embryo 
is covered over by the seed-coat without the aid of any 
albumen. 

Such is the common sweet white Jasmine, and such, 
in allessential points, is the remainder of this fragrant 
genus. The species differ in respect, 1. to the manner 
of growth, some climbing, and others forming mere 
bushes ; 2. to their leaves, some of which are undi- 
vided, and their form various in various species; 3. 
to the colour of their flowers, which, although usually 
pure white, is sometimes yellow; and 4. to their 
corolla, the number of whose divisions is, as has lately 
been mentioned, extremely variable. All of them, 
however, have monopetalous corollas, with several 
imbricated segments, only two stamens, and a superior, 
succulent fruit, with one or two erect seeds. 

The Jasmine Tribe consists of few plants besides 
Jasmines themselves. ‘The most remarkable is the 
Tree of Mourning (Nyctanthes Arbor ‘Tristis), or 
Hursinghar, an Indian tree of small size, whose ‘ ex- 
quisitely fragrant flowers, partaking of the smell of 


182 LETTER XLIV. 


fresh honey” (I quote Dr. Roxburgh’s words), open 
at the close of day, and fall off before sunrise, strewing 
the ground with their remains, and furnishing to the 
Indian girls the materials with which they decorate 
their hair. After the flowers have passed away, this 
tree becomes ragged and shabby, assuming a melan- 
choly appearance, as if in grief for the loss of the 
fragrant treasures that it once dispensed with so 
lavish a hand. This circumstance, and the dark hours 
of night which the plant selects for displaying its 
charms, have doubtless given it the name of Arbor 
tristis, or the tree of mourning. It is known bota- 
nically from a Jasmine, by its fruit being a dry seed- 
vessel, instead of a succulent berry. 


You may well be puzzled with the plant enclosed 
in your letter of yesterday; and you are right in 
your conjecture that it is not even alluded to, in any 
part of our previous correspondence. It is the Pink 
A sclepias (Asclepias incarnata), and forms the type of 
the Natural Order of that name. Its flowers are most 
curiously constructed, and may well embarrass you 
even to name the parts of which they consist. After 
you have received this letter, gather a fresh cluster 
of the blossoms, and follow me in the ensuing descrip- 
tion. 

In gathering it, you will find milk flow abundantly 
from the wound ; in this plant the milk is white, but 
in one species inhabiting the woods of Sierra Leone, 
it is of the colour of blood. If that plant had but 
grown in Palestine, it might be supposed to represent 


THE ASCLEPIAS TRIBE. 183 


the enchanted tree, which so surprised Tancred in 
the sorcerer’s wood— 
‘¢ When, dreadful to his view ! 


The wounded bark a sanguine current shed, 


And stain’d the grassy turf with streaming red.” 


This milky blood, whether white, red, or any other 
colour, abounds in the substance called Caoutchouce or 
Indian Rubber, a large proportion of which is actually 
procured from plants botanically related to the As- 
clepias. 

You will readily distinguish the calyx, which con- 
sists of six, narrow, hairy sepals, spreading back from 
the corolla (Plate XLV. 2. fig. 5. a.). Their purple 
colour betrays the petals (fig. 2. a.), which spread 
widely away from the centre, adhering at the base 
only, into a short tube, and therefore constituting a 
monopetalous corolla. From the middle of the tube 
there rises a pentagonal column (fig. 2. b.), form- 
ing the base of five other concave petals (jig. 2. c.), 
which stand erect, and collect into a sort of pink 
coronet (corona) to the flower; from the inside of each 
of these coronet-petals, springs a firm, solid horn, 
curving forwards towards the centre (fig. 3. & 4.). 
The monopetalous corolla is therefore composed of 
two whorls of petals, of which the outer are flat 
and spreading, the inner concave, erect, and horned 
internally. 

Cut away the true petals and those of the coronet; you 
will find that the pentagonal column consists of five pur- 
ple-green anthers (fig... ¢.), having no filaments, where 


184 LETLIER. SUI. 


they come in contact projecting into five whitish angles, 
adhering firmly by their faces to a pentagonal, flattish, 
fleshy, red and green table, which they surround (fig. 
7. a.), and having each a whitish, membranous termina- 
tion, which curves over the table aforesaid (jig. 5. e.). 
In the next place, carefully remove two of the anthers, 
turning them on their backs (fig. 6.); you will find 
that each is two-celled, and that the pollen of the con- 
tiguous cells of two different anthers, forms two orange- 
coloured bags (fig. 6. a. and fig. 9.), which are very 
loose in their cells, and adhere to a blackish, oval 
gland, that belongs to the angle of the table aforesaid 
(fig. '7. 6. 6. b. & 9. b.) ; so that when you open the 
anthers, you see the bags dangling from the gland like 
a pair of yellow pouches (fig. 9.). 

After all this apparatus is removed (as at fig. 7.), 
you have a view of the pistil, consisting of two 
ovaries placed in close contact, and each containing 
a large, fleshy placenta, covered with ovules (fig. 8.). 
To each ovary is a single style, which is placed parallel 
and in contact with that of its neighbour, without 
uniting to it (fig. ‘7. c.). The styles are held together 
by the fleshy five-cornered table that surmounts them 
( fig. 7. a.), and which stands in the place of a stigma, 
without exactly being one; for the influence of the 
pollen is not communicated to the ovules through its 
tissue, as In true stigmas, but somewhere about the 
point where the style and the table join (fig. 7. d.). 

When the corolla and stamens have fallen off, the 
table and styles give way, the two ovaries diverge, and 
if both of them continue to grow, you will find, when 


Fon? 


THE ASCLEPIAS TRIBE. 185 


the seed-yessel is ripe, that it consists of two, dry, 
tough cases, opening by the face, and placed almost at 
right angles with each other, so that the seed-vessels 
and stalk together, form the figure T. But it often 
happens that one ovary shrivels up and disappears ; 
in that case, the other grows upright upon its stalk 
( fig. 10.), as is usual in other plants. In the inside 
of the seed-vessel is a large number of flat, brown 
seeds, terminated by a delicate silk tuft (fig. 10.), and 
containing a thin, flat embryo, without any albumen 
(fig. 11.). 

It must be quite plain to you, that at least three 
circumstances will separately characterise the Ascle- 
pias Tribe; for no other Monopetalous order has 
either, 1. the pollen adhering into bags, or, 2. the 
anthers adhering firmly to a stigma-like table, or, 3. 
the corolla augmented by a coronet, or second row of 
petals. . 

You must not, however, expect that all the tribe will 
agree in the nature of their coronet; some have only 
a single row of secondary petals, as the plant now 
before you, others have two or even three rows, in 
various states of combination or developement. For 
the purpose of studying these matters, you should 
examine the curious speckled flowers of the Stapelia, 
and the honey-dropping, waxen blossoms of the Hoya. 
The former, indeed, will generally repel you by their 
intolerable smell, if you wait till they are naturally 
expanded ; but if you cut them open some days pre- 
viously, you can examine them without inconvenience. 

Cynanchum and Periploca, ave other common genera 


186 LETTER XLIV. 


of the same tribe, which you will easily procure for 
study. 

Very nearly allied to the Asclepias Tribe, are the 
poisonous Apocynums, represented in the gardens by 
the Periwinkle (Vinca), the Oleander (Nerium), and 
the Apocynum itself. They agree with the Asclepias 
Tribe in their milky juice, and their appearance, but 
differ in having the stamens free from each other and 
from the stigma, the pollen in its usual state, instead 
of being collected into bags, and in the want of any 
coronet of secondary petals, except now and then a 
single row of scales, growing in the mouth of the tube 
of the corolla. 

As the plants of the Apocynum Tribe, with the 
exception of those now mentioned, are not likely to 
fall in your way, it is not necessary for you to be de- 
tained with any account of them. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLV. 


I, Tue Jasmine Tripe.—l. Common white Jasmine (Jasminum 
officinale), a, a flower-bud, shewing the imbricated twisted estivation. 
—2. A corolla magnified, and opened to shew the position of the sta- 
mens.—3. A section of the calyx and ovary, exhibiting the position of 
the ovules.—4. A ripe fruit.—5. The same cut across. 

Il. Tue Ascrepias Trisz.—l. The Pink Asclepias (Asclepias 
incarnata).—2. A flower magnified; a@ a petals, 6 the column that sup-— 
ports the coronet of secondary petals, cc.—3. One of the petals of the 
coronet cut off the column.—4. A section of the same, to shew the 
origin of the horn.—5. A flower from which all the petals have been 
removed ; aa sepals, b the column of the coronet, c ¢ anthers, dd the 
projecting angles formed by the sides of the anthers, ethe membranous 


appendages at the tip of the anthers, f the glands to which the pollen- 


187 


masses adhere.—6. Two anthers turned on their backs; aa a pair of 
pollen-masses, 6 the glands to which they adhere.—7. A pistil; a the 
stigma-like, pentagonal, fleshy table, to which the anthers adhere, 6 5 
the places where the pollen-glands adhered, c the parallel styles, d the 
place through which fertilization is conveyed from the pollen to the 
ovules.—8. A transverse section of the two ovaries.—9. A pair of pollen- 
masses, adhering to the gland 6.—10. Ripe seed-vessels.—11. A seed 
cut across, to shew the embryo.—12. A perfect seed, with the feathery 


tuft that terminates it. 


LETTER XLV. 


THE BIRTHWORT TRIBE—THE ARUM TRIBE. 
(Plate XLVI.) 


Dip you ever remark a broad, round-leaved, twin- 
ing plant, near the entrance to the flower garden, on 
the right hand, next the little rock-work for Sedums, 
with dingy, brownish, lead-coloured flowers, bent 
almost double in the middle, and only to be disco- 
vered by a careful search among the leaves? It is a 
plant called Aristolochia Sipho, or, in English, the 
Siphon-flowered Birthwort, and belongs to the same 
natural order as the Wild American Ginger (Asarum 
canadense), that little, round-leaved, stemless plant, 
which forms two or three clusters among the Azaleas, 
in front of the library window, and whose cup-shaped 
brown flowers I remember shewing you, as carefully 
hidden among the leaves as if they had been, what 
they really look like, the nests of some fairy bird. 
These plants are all of them excessively curious, be- 
cause of the strange form of their flowers; most of 
which are singularly mottled or vemed with brown or 
purple, and some of which are quite gigantic in their 
dimensions. Humboldt saw the children of an Indian 
village, wearing the helmet-shaped flowers of one 


e oe Bo thee ee ws 


ee Apce pr 


ar REN OBSTE SP?) Cotes ; 
~~ UNIVERSITY OF ILLINGIS 


THE BIRTHWORT TRIBE. 189 


species, instead of hats, and Brazilian kinds have been 
discovered of scarcely a smaller size. 

These plants are brought to my recollection, by a 
quantity of blossoms of Aristolochia trilobata, the 
long-tailed Birthwort, that some unknown friend has 
just sent me from her hothouse. With this letter you 
will receive a portion of them, which we will proceed 
to examine systematically (Plate XLVI. 1.). We 
will take no notice of its twining stem, nor of its 
leaves, for these organs vary so much in different 
species, as to form no part of the distinctive characters 
of the order, but we will confine ourselves to the fruc- 
tification. 

The flower is a long tubular calyx, strongly veined 
and ribbed, curved back in the middle, so much as 
almost to be bent double, pale, livid, brownish-yellow 
externally, and deep chocolate brown in the inside, 
and at the upper end (fig. 1.). At the lower end it 
is inflated ; and at the very base it is extended into 
six little horns or spurs (fig. 1. c. & fig. 2. b.). At 
the upper end it is very much dilated and puckered ; 
on one side (fig. 1. e.) it is deeply notched; on the 
opposite side it is extended into a flat, twisted strap, 
thirteen or fourteen inches long, which, when the 
flowers are on their branches, hangs down like the 
tail of some animal; one might even fancy it belonged 
to a mouse, whose body was secreted in the cup of 
the flower. This curious calyx is quite at variance 
with any thing, however irregular in structure it may 
be, that we meet with in the same part, in the rest 
of the vegetable kingdom. Botanists seemed generally 


190 LETTER XLV. 


agreed in considering it composed of three consolidated 
sepals, of which two are rounded and one only pro- 
duced into a long appendage or tail. This opinion is 
founded partly upon the prevalence of the number 
three in the other organs of fructification, partly upon 
the regular flowered genera of the Birthwort ‘Tribe 
having a calyx of three divisions, and in some measure 
upon the theory, that a calyx is in all cases to be 
considered a whorl of sepals. It may, however, be 
fairly doubted whether in the genus Aristolochia, the 
calyx is really formed of more than a single sepal, or 
leaf, rolled together into a tube, and, in the present 
species, extended at its point into a tail. But to this 
I shall advert again. 

At the bottom of the cup of the calyx stands a 
short, club-shaped column (fig. 2.), split into six lobes 
at its point; and consisting of six anthers, adhering 
to a style and six-rayed stigma which they conceal. 
Each anther (fig. 3.) is a fleshy, somewhat shrivelled, 
sharp-pointed connective, on the outside of which are 
planted two parallel cells, which consequently are 
turned away from the stigma, and face the inside of 
the calyx. The ovary is placed beneath the calyx, 


in the form of a club-shaped, twisted stalk (fig. 1. d.);. 


it contains six cells (fig. 4.), in each of which is a 
long row of ovules, attached obliquely to the placenta. 
With the seed-vessel of this species I am unacquainted ; 
but in others it is a large pear-shaped capsule, opening 
by six sutures at the sides, and allowing the seeds to 
escape through a sort of coarse grating, produced by 
a laceration of the dissepiments. The seeds are 


THE BIRTHWORT TRIBE. 191 


thin, flat, and dark brown (fig. 5.), and contain a 
small, dicotyledonous embryo, at the base of hard, 
horny albumen ( fig. 6. & 7.). 

Asarum, the only other genus of this order you are 
likely to meet with, has a regular three-lobed calyx, 
and its stamens are distinct from each other; the 
adhesion of the stamens into a central column, does 
not therefore form any part of the essentials of the 
Birthwort Tribe, which is characterised by its inferior, 
six-celled fruit, its six stamens, and by its tubular calyx 
without corolla, divided into either one or three lobes ; 
so that the type of its tructure is essentially ternary, 
or thus, 


S S S ‘ S : 
s s s or s s S 

s s s s s s 
c Ec c , c c c 

c c c c Cc c 


which among Dicotyledons is very uncommon. 

It is, as you know, chiefly in Monocotyledons or 
Endogens, that the number three prevails in the parts 
of fructification, and it is not a little curious, that the 
stem of Aristolochias should be almost intermediate in 
structure between that of Exogens and Endogens. It 
has the medullary processes of the former, and conse- 
quently their pith ; but it wants the concentric layers 
in the wood, which is formed of bundles of woody 
matter, collected indeed into wedges, but plunged 
down into a pithy substance, as in Endogens. The 
Birthwort Tribe may therefore be considered one of 


- 


192 LETEER! ‘XL¥i 


several cases, where the structure peculiar to one class 
assimilates itself to that of the other. 


A ease of this sort, where Aristolochias themselves 
may be considered as typified among Endogens, occurs 
in the Arum Trips (Plate XLVI. 2.). You probably 
know this tribe already, from the common spotted 
Arum (A. maculatum) of our hedges, or the speckled 
Dragon Arum (A. Dracunculus) of the gardens. 
These two species, at least, are so very common, that 
if you do not yet know them, you can have no difficulty 
in procuring them for examination. 

The Arum Tribe consists of stemless or long-stem- 
med plants, whose internal structure is strictly that of 
Endogens, but whose leaves bear more resemblance to 
those of Exogens; it is, however, to be observed, that 
the lobed figure of the leaves, and their branched 
veining, to which the resemblance is due, need not 
be confounded with the netted veming of Exogens, be- 
cause in Arum, the veins are branched rather than 
netted, and are in a great measure destitute of the 
lateral, minute branchlets, to which the peculiar ap- 
pearance of Exogenous leaves is chiefly owing. Many 
of these have large, tuberous, under-ground stems, 
which, although acrid, and even poisonous when raw, 
nevertheless, by slicing, washing, and cooking, become 
fit for food, and are actually so employed, in England 
only in a few places, or in times of scarcity, but im 
tropical countries, as a common, every-day, esculent 
vegetable. Their foliage is generally more or less 
lobed, and sometimes very curiously, but is so much 


THE ARUM TRIBE. 193 


diversified, that it can hardly be said to offer any 
certain mark of recognition. The great and striking 
feature of the natural order resides in the spathe and 
spadix. As these terms are new to you, they must be 
explained before we proceed further. 

A spathe is a leaf, usually coloured, but sometimes 
green, which is rolled up round a spike of flowers ; it 
is, in fact, a sort of large bract. 

A spadix is a fleshy spike, covered all over with 
flowers, and enclosed in a spathe. 

In all Araceous plants, the flowers are collected 
upon a spadix, and are enclosed in a spathe. Both 
these parts, in particular species, have most extraor- 
dinary appearances. The spathe, for example, is some- 
times a foot and more in diameter, formig a huge 
vegetable bell, of which the spadix would be the clap- 
per, if the spathe were not erect; it is often stained 
with the deepest and richest colours; and in some 
cases it is extended on one side into a long slender 
tail, very much like that of the calyx im the long- 
tailed Birthwort. The spadix, on the other hand, is 
either covered all over with flowers, in which case it 
makes no unusual appearance, or it is naked at the 
point and then assumes the strangest shapes, which some- 
times, moreover, glow with all the colours of the spathe. 
Thus in the Dragon-Arum it is a long purple horn, 
standing up, and projecting from a large, deep-purple 
spathe ; in others it hangs down from the spathe 
like a slender tail; and in some cases it is enlarged 
into a disgusting, fungus-like, livid excrescence, 


VOL. II. oO 


194, LETTER XLV. 


The common spotted Arum (Arum maculatum), will 
give you a sufficiently correct idea of the structure of 
the Arum Tribe. It has a smooth, erect, oblong 
spathe (fig. 1.), green outside, whitish inside, and 
unrolling to expose the point of the spadix (fig. 1. a.), 
which children call the lady riding in her coach. If 
you extract the spadix, you will find it a long, soft, 
fleshy branch, the upper part of which is quite naked, 
and the lower part covered with naked flowers. At 
the bottom (fig. 2. b.) stand several tiers of round 
ovaries ; above them are placed two or three rows of 
abortive ovaries, in the form of horned, pear-shaped 
bodies (fig. 2. c.); then appears a crowd of stamens 
(fig. 2. d.); and above those is again collected a small 
cluster of abortive ovaries (fig. 2. e.). The ovaries 
are so many naked fertile flowers, the stamens are 
each a naked sterile flower; and the inflorescence is, 
in strict technical language, a crowded monececious 
spike, wrapped up in a large leafy bract. 

The ovary is puckered and hollowed out at the 
apex, for a stigma (fig. 3.), and contains two ovules 
growing from the side of a single cell (fig. 4.). The 
stamen has a short thick filament, with two round 
lobes, placed obliquely on its end, for an anther 
(fig. 5.). 

The fruit ripens in the form of a spike of orange- 
coloured, roundish berries (fig. 6.), each of which 
contains a single seed (fig. 7.), enclosing a monocoty- 
ledonous embryo (fig. 8.), surrounded by farinaceous 
albumen. On one side of the embryo is a narrow 
slit (fig. 8. a.), at the bottom of which lies the minute 


THE ARUM TRIBE. 195 


point (fig. 9. a.), or plumule, which eventually becomes 
the new stem. 


Such is the structure of the spotted Arum. The 
other genera differ in the spadix being altogether 
covered with flowers, or in the absence of abortive 
ovaries, or in the internal structure of the anther and 
ovary, or even in that of the style and stigma; but 


the spathaceous inflorescence distinctly marks the 
order in all cases. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLVI. 


I. Tae Birtawort Trise.—1. Leaf and flower of the long-tailed 
Birthwort (Aristolochia trilobata), natural size ; a the stipules ; 6 the 
strap-shaped tail of the calyx; ¢ the horns at the base of the calyx; d 
the ovary ; e the notch on one side of the border of the calyx.—2. The 
column of stamens d, seated in the base of the calyx a; 5 the horns of 
the calyx ; ¢ the ovary.—3. An anther separated from the other five. 
—4. A transverse section of the ovary.—5. A seed of another species of 
Birthwort, natural size.—6. The same magnified, with half the skin cut 
off, to shew the embryo a, lying in horny albumen.—7. The embryo. 

II. Tae Arum Trige.—1. Spathe of Spotted Arum (Arum ma- 
culatum), natural size, with the point of the spadix at a.—2. A spadix 
taken out of the spathe ; a the base of the spathe ; b ovaries ; ¢ abortive 
ovaries ; d stamens ; e abortive ovaries ; f part of the stalk of the naked 
head of the spadix.—3. An ovary.—4. A transverse section of the same. 
—5. A stamen.—6. The spadix covered with ripe fruit ; a the withered 
remains of the spathe.—7. A ripe seed.—8. A longitudinal section of 
the same, shewing the embryo lying in albumen ; @ the slit communi- 
cating with the plumule-—9. The monocotyledonous embryo, with a 
portion of its root-end sliced away, and shewing the conical plumule a. 


LETTER XLVI. 


PITCHER-PLANTS—VEGETABLE ANATOMY. 


aeneree 


Plates XLVII § XLVITI. 


POPOL LA ERO ONO LOLOL EOE 


I must not dismiss the Birthwort Tribe without 
adverting to those curious vegetables called Pitcher- 
plants, in the East Indies, and to the Monkey-cups 
they bear. The production of hollow bags instead of 
leaves, is not a very uncommon occurrence in plants ; 
in Dionea a preparation is made for their formation 
by the dilatation of the leaf-stalk; in Stde-saddle 
flowers (Sarracenias), the edges of the petiole are 
rolled up and united into a cup, over which the end 
of the leaf curves, as if to cover it; in some plants 
the bracts are changed into bags which hang down 
amongst the flowers; andin an East Indian plant 
called Dischidia Rafflesiana, which climbs to the top 
of the highest trees in the forests of Penang, the upper 
branches are loaded with clusters of tough, fleshy, 
leathery bottles, filled with water, into which roots, 
protruded from the branches, dip their pots to 
drink. 

Not only is Sarracenia found in our gardens now 
_ and then, and Cephalotus, a New Holland plant, whose 
singular pitchers are beautifully fringed and veined ; 
but Nepenthes itself, the true Pitcher-plant of the 


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PITCHER-PLANTS. 197 


East Indies, is successfully cultivated in several places. 
A large branch which I have received from Went- 
worth, through the kindness of Lord Fitzwilliam, 
gives me an opportunity of describing it to you in 
detail; and I know no plant that better deserves to 
be understood. 

The stem of Nepenthes distillatoria, the only species 
as yet in the possession of cultivators, forms a slender 
woody stem, growing ten or twelve feet high, or pro- 
bably much longer, and supporting itself upon sur- 
rounding plants, by means of its numerous tendrils. 
In its native country it inhabits swampy situations, 
and consequently, in a hothouse, it must be treated 
accordingly. At the lower part of the stem there 
appear a few leaves of a bright green colour, a little 
curved back at the point, where they are rounded off, 
tapering to the base and half embracing the stem ; 
these leaves vary in length from one to four or five 
inches, and have nothing in their appearance to dis- 
tinguish them from ordinary leaves. But higher up 
the stem, the leaves grow much longer, and taper into 
a tendril at the point, from which is suspended a long 
funnel-shaped, green cup, often as large as a three 
ounce vial, covered by a lid, and sometimes containing 
water. At first it is entirely closed up by the lid, but 
after a time the latter separates, except by its hinge, 
and merely overhangs the mouth of the cup, which is 
bordered by an exquisitely beautiful, stiff, crimped 
frill, which curves inwards, and forms a broad ledge 
on which the sides of the lid may rest. In all cases 
the pitchers contain fluid at some time or ‘other ; but 


198 LETTER XLVI. 


after they are once opened it usually dries up; so 
that the tales which are current about their being 
sought by wild animals, especially monkeys, for the 
water they contain, must be received with some sus- 
picion. ‘The use of the water is altogether unknown, 
nor indeed are Botanists generally aware by what 
apparatus it is secreted. There is, however, a pecu- 
liar glandular structure in the inside of the pitchers, 
which is the more probably connected with the secre- 
tion, as it is not found on any other part of the 
Nepenthes, nor, so far as I know, in any other plants. 

If you observe attentively the inside of the ld of 
the common garden species, or peep down into the 
pitchers, you will find the surface distinctly marked by 
inequalities, which give it somewhat the appearance 
of shagreen. Placed under a microscope, the inequa- 
lities prove to be caused by the presence of an infinite 
number of oval, dark brown glands (Plate XLVII. 
fig. C. a.), lymg in the midst of the fine, compact, 
cellular substance of the cuticle. The cells of the 
latter are tolerably regular, lozenge-shaped hexagons, 
except at the edges of the glands, where they become 
perceptibly smaller and rounder (fig. C. b.); and, 
what is very remarkable, the cuticle, instead of spread- 
ing over the glands, leaves them quite naked, so that, 
when it is stripped off the leaf, it is riddled with re- 
gular oval holes (fig. C. b. b. b.) corresponding with 
the glands. If, instead of examining merely the 
surface of the interior of the pitcher, you make a 
section of it, perpendicular to the surface, and through 
one of the glands (fig. D.), it will then be seen that 


PITCHER-PLANTS. 199 


the gland (a) is really an oblong kernel, of hard, brown, 
minute cells, lymg upon a quantity of thin-sided vesi- 
cles of the parenchyma, and kept in its place by the 
edge of the tough cuticle, which projects a little 
over the edge, and holds it firmly down; there is the 
more necessity for this arrangement, in consequence 
of the gland having no connection with the tissue it 
lies upon, further than it gains by being in contact 
with it. As glands are so often secreting organs, is it 
not probable that the secretion of fluid inside the 
pitcher of Nepenthes, may be owing to their pre- 
sence? I have stated, that be their office what it 
may, they never occur any where except on the inside 
the pitcher ; in Nepenthes distillatoria, they are not 
found near the top, although they are abundant on 
the inside the lid; in other species, the lid seems to 
be quite free from them, while the whole of the interior 
of the pitcher is covered with them. 1 have also, in 
one solitary instance, seen three of them on the outside 
of a pitcher near its base. 

It is not merely in the cuticle of its pitchers, that 
Nepenthes has a curious anatomy. It is extremely 
well worth examination in other parts, and as we have 
all our microscopical apparatus in readiness, we may 
as well continue the investigation. Let us begin by 
making a very thin, transverse slice of the stem ; this 
will shew you, that whether it is the soft parenchyma 
of a leaf or the firmer tissue of the bark, or the 
delicate and filmy cuticle, or the solid wood itself, 
all the parts of a plant consist of cells and tubes 
variously arranged. Having placed your slice on 


200 LETTER XLVIs 


the table of the microscope, in water, and illumi- 
nated it by light thrown from below, first remark the 
structure of the bark ; it is a thick, firm layer of hex- 
agonal cells, part of which (A. f-—g.) are arranged 
in one way, and part (A. e.— f.) in another, so that 
a strip of the bark might without much difficulty, be 
split into two plates. Among the green cells of the 
bark, you will remark a few round white points : these 
are the mouths of fine, spiral-coated tubes, or spiral 
vessels. Between the bark and the wood is a thick 
layer (A. d.—e.) of exceedingly delicate, thin, green 
cells, in which you may discern the round mouths of 
other tubes of various sizes; these are other spiral 
vessels of very large size, and in such abundance, that 
they look like a stratum of tow, between the wood and 
bark ; each of these large spiral vessels is formed of 
four threads, twisted spirally. Next the spiral struc- 
ture comes the wood, the outside of which (A. c.—d.) 
is hard, compact, and homogeneous, and then becomes, 
towards the centre (A. b.—c.), more open, with a 
quantity of unequal, round, or oval perforations, which 
are also the mouths of large spiral vessels ; finally, 
you come to the pith (A. a.—d.), consisting of thin- 
sided, large cells, in which are more mouths of vessels. 
All this is highly curious, and shews you what an 
infinite multitude of forces, represented by these little 
organs, are required to maintain the life of Nepenthes. 

You will not, however, form a correct notion of 
their real nature, unless you also examine a longitu- 
dinal slice of the same part of the stem (Plate 
XLVII. B.); hitherto you have only seen the ends 


VEGETABLE ANATOMY. 201 


of the cells and tubes ; you are next to observe their 
sides ; or otherwise you will not distinguish between 
tubes and cells. To begin again with the bark. You 
will now find that the cause of the different appear- 
ances in the two layers of the bark is owing to the 
outer layer (B. f-—g.) consisting of round cells, while 
the inner consists of long cells (B. e.—f-), whose prin- 
cipal diameter is parallel with the stem ; of these two 
layers, the outer is purely parenchymatous, and ana- 
logous to the cortical integument, the inner is partly 
woody and analogous to the liber or inner bark of other 
Exogens. You will next see that the spiral stratum 
(B. d.—e.), is composed exclusively of thin roundish 
cells, and spiral vessels of the largest size; that the 
compact, homogeneous outside (B. c.—d.) 1s ex- 
clusively composed of woody tubes; that the wood 
itself (B. b.—c.) consists externally of woody tubes, 
which gradually, as they approach the pith, acquire 
an hexagonal form; and that in addition to the small 
spiral vessels lymg amongst them, are some jointed, 
dotted tubes, which were not before distinguished ; 
finally, that the pith is really composed of nothing 
but large, round polygons, mixed with great spiral 
vessels, as at first appeared. 

You must not suppose that, because the Nepenthes 
is an Exogenous plant, therefore all other Exogens 
have exactly this structure. On the contrary, Nepen- 
thes is one of the greatest anomalies | am acquainted 
with, and stands quite alone, so far as observation has 
yet gone, in several parts of its anatomy. For in- 
stance, no other known plant has spiral vessels 


202 LETTER XLVI. 


any where except in the woody parts; Nepenthes 
produces them not only in the pith and the bark, but 
actually possesses a peculiar organ, as it would seem, 
expressly formed for their more abundant develope- 
ment; namely, the cellular stratum between the wood 
and bark. My object, therefore, in bringing these 
points to your notice, is not so much to illustrate 
general structure, as to acquaint you with a great 
singularity of structure. _ 

If you now proceed to examine the cuticle, you will 
find even there a circumstance which is very unusual. 
The stomates on the outside the pitchers, and on the 
upper side of the leaf, are quite different. The cuticle 
of the upper side of the leaf (Plate XLVIII. D.), 
consists of lengthened meshes formed by the union of 
long cells; and among them are placed colourless, 
oval stomates (D. a. and B. a.), formed of a pair of 
parallel ceils, and containing a good many particles 
of semi-opaque matter. But on the outside of the 
pitchers, the stomates are different in form and colour ; 
the cuticle of this part has rounded meshes (Plate 
XLVIII. C.), among which lie roundish reddish sto- 
mates (C. 6. and A. a.), not appearing to contain 
glandular matter, and consisting of four cells, of which 
the two central ones are much deeper coloured than 
the others. Moreover, below each of these stomates, 
in the inside of the leaf, are arranged six or seven an- 
gular, deep-red cells, which form a sort of mternal 
gland, resting upon the stomate (C. 6.). This cir- 
cumstance seems connected with the glandular struc- 
ture of the inside of the pitcher, and possibly will be 


VEGETABLE ANATOMY. 203 


hereafter found another part of some wonderful adap- 
tation of means to ends, which, although not capable 
of explanation in the present instance, we may feel 
perfectly persuaded of the existence of. 

A slice of the firm tendril of this plant is so easily 
obtained, and shews so well the machinery by which 
that slender part bears its heavy pitcher, that I am 
sure you will be sorry to miss the opportunity of study- 
ing it. Take the finest imaginable transverse slice, 
and cut out of it a wedge (Plate XLVIII. E.), the 
top of which shall be the circumference, and the point 
the centre of the tendril. You will find that it is com- 
posed chiefly of roundish cells, the principal difference 
in which is, that those next the centre (e.—f.) have 
thinner and weaker sides than those next the circum- 
ference (e.—d.); and that the whole is bound together 
by a tough cuticle of small thick-sided cells (d.—d.). 
If the tendril were really composed of nothing more 
than this, it would have none of the requisite tough- 
ness and elasticity, either to support the weight of the 
plant, or to carry the pitcher; on the contrary, it 
would be brittle, like a piece of pith or a fungus. 
But upon looking more carefully at the section, you 
will perceive, near the centre, four or five little collec- 
tions (E. c.) of thick-sided cells, surrounding a solid 
half moon (E. f-), and a small number of light, open, 
oval, or round spaces (E. c.), which you now know 
are the mouths of vessels ; you will further note that 
the convexity of the half moon is towards the circum- 
ference of the tendril. A little way off the centre, 


204 LETTER XLVI: 


towards the circumference, you will find from sixteen 
to twenty more of these appearances (KE. f-). They 
are caused by your having cut through the ends of 
highly elastic cords, consisting of spiral vessels (b. & 
c.), strengthened by a quantity of woody fibre (/-), 
and surrounded on all sides by tough, thick-sided 
cells ; respiration goes on through the spiral vessels, 
circulation through the woody tubes, which also give 
strength and elasticity to the cords, and digestion 
through the surrounding cells. Moreover, near the 
circumference of the tendril (E. a.) these cords are 
repeated on a smaller scale, spiral vesseis being placed 
in the centre, thick-sided cells on the outside, and a 
few tough, woody tubes immediately in contact with 
the spiral vessels ; the object of these is no doubt to 
strengthen the tendril still further, and to do away 
with all possibility of the cords near the centre being 
accidentally broken. 

Thus you see nature provides not fewer than sixty 
or seventy cords or muscles, each of a most wonderful 
degree of completeness, to give its requisite strength 
to a tendril, the diameter of which does not exceed 
the twelfth part of an inch. Iam sure you will now 
agree with me, that however admirable the contri- 
vances are, which readily meet the eye in the vegetable 
kingdom, there is something still more wonderful in 
the hidden and microscopic machinery, by which their 
organs are set in action. 


205 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLVII. 


Anatomy or NepentTHES.—A and B sections of a stem; a—b 
the pith containing spiral vessels, lying in cellular tissue; b—c wood, 
consisting of long, lozenge-shaped, thick-sided cells, passing into rounded 
cells as they near the pith, of small spiral vessels and dotted vessels* 
(or vasiform tissue) intermixed ; c—d a homogeneous layer of woody 
tissue ; d—e large, lax, thin-sided, cellular tissue, forming, with large 
spiral vessels, a layer between the wood and bark; e—f the liber or inner 
bark, and f—g the cortical integument, or outer bark, containing fine 
spiral vessels. C. A portion of the cuticle of the inside of a pitcher, 
with the glands a, and the openings in the cuticle bb, left when the 


glands are removed. D. A section of the pitcher, made perpendicular 
to the cuticle of the inside; 4 } cuticle closing in the gland, which is 


evidently a kernel of small hard brown cells. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLVIII. 


ANATOMY OF NEPENTHES, continued. A. A highly magnified 
view of a stomate a, and a portion of the cuticle on the outside of a 
pitcher.—C. The same less magnified, seen from the under side; a the 
stomates; 6 the purple gland which reposes upon the stomates.—B. A 
highly magnified view of a stomate a, and a portion of the cuticle of 
the upper side of the true leaf —D. The same less magnified; aa sto- 
mates.—E. A highly magnified segment of a transverse section of a 
tendril; d d cuticle; aa a row of elastic cords of vessels protected by 

‘woody fibre next the outside ; 5, f, and ¢, f, other elastic cords nearer 
the centre, 6 being the mouths of vessels, and f curved masses of woody 


tissue. 


LETTER XLVII. 


THE WATER PLANTAIN TRIBE—THE WATER LILY 
TRIBE. 


Cea 


Plate XLIX. 


I wave now almost finished all the details about 
which I propose to occupy you, and so far as syste- 
matic Botany is concerned, I see no great object in 
pursuing the subject further. Indeed, to extend our 
correspondence much, would change the aim with 
which it was commenced ; and you would be studying 
a long dissertation upon the Natural System of classi- 
fication, instead of an introductory account of its 
elements. 

There are, however, two natural orders of aquatic 
plants, both of which are common in this country, and 
about which a few remarks may be made with some 
advantage to you. The first is the Water Pxian- 
TAIN TripeE, the other the Water Lity Trise. 

The Water Plantain (Alisma Plantago), and the 
Arrow-head (Sagittaria sagittifolia), are two herbaceous 
plants, inhabiting the sides of ditches and ponds all 
over England. In most respects they are alike in 
the structure of their parts of fructification, differmg 
principally in the latter having more stamens than the 
former, and these organs in different flowers from 


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THE WATER PLANTAIN TRIBE. 207 


the pistils. As the Water Plantain is the commoner 
of the two, let us look at it. 

It has oblong, heart-shaped, pointed leaves, marked 
with about seven ribs, connected by transverse, oblique, 
forking and branching veins. The flowers are arranged 
in a loose, whorled, branching panicle (Plate XLIX. 
fig. 1.), at the base of each of whose whorls stand a 
few brown or green ovate bracts. The flowers (fig. 
2.) have a calyx of three, green, permanent, blunt, 
parallel-veined sepals, and three delicate pink, or 
white, roundish, toothed petals. 

There are six stamens placed in a very unusual 
manner, two opposite each sepal (fig. 3.) ; so that in 
this part of the fructification, Alisma is in a state that 
cannot be reconciled with the laws of structure before 
laid down. Upona more minute examination, how- 
ever, you will find a small round gland (fig. 3. a.) 
at the base of each sepal, and between each pair of 
stamens; this is obviously a rudimentary stamen, 
the number of which is thus increased tonine. But 
still the three stamens that ought to be placed 
opposite the petals are absent; and they must be 
considered altogether wanting; the six perfect stamens 
will belong to two succeeding whorls ; so that, in reality, 
the flower of Alisma, although containing six stamens, 
or two whorls only, must be considered to be constructed 
upon a plan of twelve stamens in four whorls, of which 
the outer is rudimentary, the second deficient, and 
the two others consolidated into a single whorl; or 
the scheme of suppression of parts will be expressed 
thus :— 


208 LETTER XLVII. 


) N) N) 
Pp P P 
S S s 
S S s 


This is of more importance for you to know than 
you would at first suspect ; for it indicates that Alisma, 
although formed with only six stamens, has a tendency 
to produce twelve, and hence that it may belong to a 
tribe, the prevailing number of whose stamens is 
twelve, or even more; and such is really the fact. 
Even in Alisma itself, the stamens are in other species 
nine, twelve, or even more; and in Arrow-head they 
are in all cases very numerous. Had the six stamens 
of Alisma belonged to the two first whorls, you would 
have had no reason to suppose, that although hexan- 
drous, it might have immediate polyandrous affinities. 

The ovaries of the Water Plantain are about twenty- 
four (that is, eight times three), arranged in a some- 
what triangular manner; they are quite distinct from 
each other ( fig. 4.), and consist of a single cell, from 
one side of the top of which the style arises in the form 
of a curved horn, the upper end of which is broken up 
into a stigma (fig. 4. a.). There is one ovule (fig. 
5. a.) attached to the bottom of the cell, by a curved 
stalk. 

The fruit ( fig. 6.) is a triangular head of dry, one- 
seeded nuts, furrowed at the back, and marked with 
the base of the style on one side (fig. 7. a.). 

From what has now been stated, can you tell whe- 


THE WATER-PLANTAIN TRIBE. 209 


ther this plant is an Exogen or an Endogen? Its 
leaves are in some measure those of both classes; and 
not exactly of either. The parallel ribs and netted 
intervals are, of the two, most like those of an Exogen. 
The branched verticillate inflorescence is most common 
in Exogens; but then it occurs continually among 
grasses. The ternary flowers are those of Endogens, 
but, again, there are many cases among Exogens where 
the ternary structure also exists: as in the Hepatica 
which is a Ranunculaceous plant. So far, therefore, as 
the structure of those parts you have been able to 
examine is concerned, the evidence seems pretty well 
balanced. 

Perhaps affinity may settle the poimt. What is 
Alisma most like? You have no where seen in En- 
dogens an example of numerous carpels and stamens ; 
six, or three, or fewer, having been the prevailing 
number. We do not, therefore, seem likely to find a 
parallel in that class. ‘Turn to Exogens, and espe- 
cially to those which have numerous hypogynous 
stamens and carpels; and the memory immediately 
rests upon the Crowfoot Tribe. In that natural 
order, although the leaves are usually veined in 
the most legitimately Exogenous manner, yet in 
some, in the water species in particular, such as the 
common tongue-leaved Crowfoot (Ranunculus Lingua), 
the veins are disposed upon a plan strikingly similar 
to that of Alisma; in Pilewort, which is a species of 
Crowfoot (Ranunculus Ficaria), there are only three 
sepals ; and in the Mousetail (Myosurus minimus), the 
stamens fluctuate between five and twenty. The fruit 


VOL. Il. P 


210 LETTER XLVII. 


of the Crowfoot Tribe often consists, as you know, of 
a considerable number of little, one-seeded, closed 
nuts, with an oblique style at the point; in short, in 
all these, and some other respects, Alisma is so like a 
Crowfoot, that it might actually be referred to the 
tribe of that name by any but a very cautious observer. 
The principal objection to its bemg placed in the 
Crowfoot Tribe, lies here; it is only now and then in 
Ranunculaceous plants that the number three occurs, 
and where it does exist, it is confined to the sepals or 
the petals, and is not found in the stamens or carpels : 
but in Alisma it occurs throughout every part ; in the 
former, therefore, it may be regarded as an occasional 
deviation from a rule, while in the latter, it must be 
looked upon as the rule itself. In fact, the seed of 
Alisma, which in all these cases is the court of final © 
appeal, shews that Alisma, is in reality, an Endogen. 

If you open one of the nuts, you will find the seed 
standing erect (fig. 8.), and containing a monocotyle- 
donous embryo, curved upon itself into the form of 
a horse-shoe. | 

The result of this examination shews how necessary 
it is, in doubtful points, to weigh and balance every 
thing that can be observed, and not to decide without 
the most careful investigation. In this case there was 
no real difficulty in arriving at the truth; it was only 
care and attention that were required. 


The white Water-Lily (Nymphea alba), although 
an aquatic like the Alisma, is in some respects very 
different. I select it as another case where a little 


THE WATER-LILY TRIBE. Q1) 


attention to the rule of evidence in Systematic Botany 
is required, in order to formacorrect judgment. ‘The 
stem of this plant affords no precise character, either 
one way or other, as between Exogens and Endogens. 
Its leaves, moreover, are referable, as much to the 
type of the one as of the other. Its flowers (Plate 
XLIX. 2. fig. 1.) consist of about twenty-five, thickish, 
oblong leaves, of a dazzling white colour, and the five 
external ones are more or less green at the back, in 
representation of a calyx; these leaves grow gradually 
smaller and smaller towards the centre, till at last 
their points become callous and yellow; at length bear a 
pair of short, anther-lobes, in the room of the yellow cal- 
losity (fig. 3.) ; these again narrow into straps, having 
more perfect anthers at the points (fig. 4.), and finally, 
next the ovary, shorten, diminish, and produce less 
perfect anthers. What I have called anther-bearing 
petals, are obviously stamens. Do not suppose that 
in this respect the Water-Lily offers an exception to 
general rules ; in all cases the stamens are nothing but 
contracted and altered petals provided with anthers ;_ 
only in the Water-Lily the transition is gradual and 
apparent, in others, it is too abrupt to be perceived. 
The number of the stamens is about fifty, but it is 
not fixed, nor indeed easily ascertained. 

The ovary is in a curious state (fig. 2.); instead of 
being either altogether free, or altogether united with 
the calyx, it has the lower floral leaves free from it, 
and the upper united with it, so that the anther-bearing 
petals or stamens grow from just below the stigmas. 
It has ten or eleven cells, the partitions of which are 

Pe 


Q12 LETTER XLVII. 


covered all over with ovules (fig. 5.), and the same 
number of orange-yellow stigmas, which spread away 
from the centre, like the rays of a poppy-head, to 
which they bear no little resemblance. 

Is this plant an Exogen or an Endogen? _ Its leaves 
and stems afford no satisfactory information, and its 
habit, numerous stamens and carpels, would lead one 
to think that it bears the same relation to Alisma, as 
the Poppy to a Crowfoot. But the manifest tendency 
to the number five in the flowers of this plant, is fatal 
to the supposition; had the tendency been to four, 
the evidence would have still been inconclusive, for 
four does sometimes occur in the flowers of Endogens ; 
but five, never. Therefore, without searching for the 
seed, the Water-Lily might be confidently considered 
a polypetalous Exogen; a conclusion confirmed by 
the seed, which is a little dicotyledonous body, lying 
in a bag, on the outside of a quantity of farmaceous 
albumen. 

Besides this species, the yellow Water-Lily (Nuphar 
lutea) is extremely common in ponds. ‘Take care, 
however, that you do not mistake for it the Floating 
Buck-bean (Villarsia nympheoides), which is a mono- 
petalous plant, belonging to an out-lying portion of 
the Gentian ‘Tribe. 


213 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XLIX. 


I. THe WaArTerR-PLANTAIN TripE.—I. A portion of the whorled 
panicle of common Water-Plantain (Alisma Plantago).—2. A complete 
flower.—3. A calyx, stamens and pistil; @ a@ the sepaline glands, or 
rudimentary stamens.—4. A carpel ; a its recurved stigmatic face.—5. 
A section of the ovary, shewing the ovule a, elevated on its curved 
stalk.—6. A fruit.—7. One of the nuts much magnified; a the remains 
of the style-—8. A vertical section of the nut, shewing the seed with its 
horse-shoe embryo: a the base of the style. 

II. Toe Warer-Lity Tripe.—|]. A flower of the white Water- 
Lily (Nymphza alba).—2. A vertical section of the pistil, from which 
the petals, &c. have been cut away; a a first transition from petals to 
stamens; 6 perfect stamens; c diminished stamens.—3. A view of the 
front of a transition petal—4. A complete stamen.—5. A transverse 
section of the ovary, with the ovules adhering to all the faces of the 


dissepiments. 


LETTER XLVIITI. 


THE RIPE FRUIT OF A MANGO. 


POPLPDOPL IAL IDI LD DIO LD DIOL PDD ODILLLOL DLS 


Plaie L. 


PROPRANOLOL OEE 


I senp you a beautiful drawing, by Mr. Francis 
Bauer, of the fruit of a Mango, a delicious tropical 
fruit, which has occasionally been brought to per- 
fection in the hothouses of England, but which is 
better known in Europe in the form of a pickle. My 
object in placing the drawing in your hands is to 
shew you, by its means, something more of the 
internal structure of a fruit and a seed than you yet 
possess. 

You must remember, that the type of all fruit is 
the carpel; that all carpels are formed upon one 
common plan, modified indeed to a great extent, by 
excessive growth, solidification, attenuation, or the like; 
and that fruits of every description are composed of one 
or more carpels, distinct or consolidated, and more or 
less altered by causes of the same nature as those 
which affect each separate carpel. So that, to under. 
stand the connection that exists between the parts of 
one ripe carpel, is to possess a standard, to which the, 
peculiarities of all other carpels may be reduced. 


Nothing more instructive than the Mango can be 
taken. 


EBauer; del. Nov.” Je08. 


‘uote 
F THE 
“onvesiy OF ILUNOIS. 


THE RIPE FRUIT OF A MANGO. Q15 


The Mango (fig. 1.) is an oblong, rather kidney- 
shaped fruit, composed of an external succulent flesh 
(fig. 2. and 2. * b.), adhering to a fibrous woody shell 
(fig. 2. and 2. * a.), lined by a hard, homogeneous, brittle 
crust (fig. 2. * e.); the whole enclosing the seed 
(fig. 2. * fi). 

The flesh, shell, and crust, taken together, are the 
pericarp. They are connected by a prodigious multi- 
tude of fibres, which pass from the shell into the flesh, 
where they lose themselves. The flesh and crust are a 
continuation of the bark of a branch (fig. 2. d.), the 
shell of the wood (fig. 2. c.), in the organic qualities 
of which they respectively participate. 

The pericarp is theoretically analogous to a leaf 
rolled inwards, till its edges touch and grow together, 
so as to form a hollow case. The flesh is analogous to 
the parenchyma of the lower surface of the leaf, the shell 
to the veins, the crust to the parenchyma of the upper 
surface. The parenchyma of the leaf is an extension 
of the bark of the branch, and the veins of the wood, 
in the organic qualities of which they likewise parti- 
_cipate. 

In a leaf the veins convey liquid food from the 
wood, and deposit it in the parenchyma, where it is 
digested and altered, and whence it is slowly filtered 
back into the bark of the branch, which it descends. 
In the Mango fruit the liquid food is conveyed from 
the wood into the pericarp by the fibres of the shell, 
which pour it forth by their thousand mouths into 
the parenchyma, to be therein digested and altered ; 
but in consequence of the narrowness of the stalk, the 


216 LETTER XLVIII. 


cells through which it would have to filter are soon 
choked up, and then the altered food is forced to accu- 
mulate in the parenchyma (fig. 2. and 2.* b.). Being 
thus arrested in its course, it swells the tissue in 
which it lies, becomes more and more changed by 
constant exposure to light and air, till at last the 
succulent flesh of the Mango is the result. 

As to the parenchyma of the inside of the pericarp, 
as it is cut off by the shell from all communication 
with the flesh, and is continually pressed upon by the 
seed as it grows, beg thus jammed as it were be- 
tween the shell and the seed, it is not unnatural that 
it should become so hard and solid as we find it. 

The seed is attached to the bottom of the pericarp 
by a broad space (extending from / to e in fig. 3.), 
and stands erect in the cavity. It has two distinct 
skins, one of which (fig. 3. b.) is thin, pale, mem- 
branous and loose, the other and inner (fig. 3. c.) 
thicker, darker coloured, and fitting close to the 
embryo. 

The inner skin does not grow from the same part of 
the pericarp as the outer, but springs from the top of 
a cord which arises obliquely from one side of the 
base (fig. 3. d. and 4. c.). From its junction with the 
inner coat to a small depression upon the edge (fig. 
3. g.), the cord throws out veins which, taking a 
curved direction, and following the form of the embryo, 
fill the whole of the inner coat with a network of 
vessels. 

The cord alluded to is the raphe, the depression 
upon the edge of the seed the centre of the chalaza, 


THE RIPE FRUIT OF A MANGO. OS | 


and in the eyes of physiologists the true organic apex 
of the seed. It is obvious, therefore, that in this case 
the organic apex, and the apparent apex, are far from 
corresponding; and this is a very common occur- 
rence. 

The use of the vessels of the chalaza is doubtless 
to convey from the junction of the pericarp and branch 
(fig. 3. f.) the nutritious fluids required to enable the 
embryo to develope, and to change, from an opaque 
speck floating in jelly, to a large almond-like kernel. 

The embryo is a large almond-like kernel (fig. 
4. b.), composed of two plano-convex cotyledons, curved 
almost into the form of a kidney, and adhering by a 
poit indicated externally by the small conical radicle 
(fig. 4. a.). 

If you cut off the cotyledons, so as to get the 
radicle and plumule small enough to be conveniently 
magnified about four times, you will see that those 
two parts form a centre or axis of growth represented 
by two cones, of which the radicle ( fig. 5. a.), lying in 
a niche of the cotyledons on the outside, is one, and 
the plumule (fig. 5. b.), enclosed between the bases of 
the cotyledons, is another. The cotyledons grow to the 
axis by a narrow space (fig. 5. c.). 

The plumule ( figs. 6. and 7.) is terminated at its 
point by four extremely minute leaves, crossing or 
alternating with each other in opposite pairs. Of 
these plumular leaves, the larger pair (a. a.) is ex- 
ternal, and partly overlies the smaller (6.). The coty- 
ledons themselves, which are larger still, cross or 
alternate with the outer pair of plumular leaves. 


218 LETTER XLVIII. 


Such would be the position of any three pairs of 
opposite leaves upon a branch, as you may see by a 
Laurustinus, or a Sycamore tree ; and hence they are 
all, cotyledons and plumular scales, considered rudi- 
mentary, or incompletely formed leaves. 

If you can only understand that all fruits whatso- 
ever are either multiplications of that of the Mango, 
with the addition perhaps of several seeds, and such 
alterations as I have already spoken of (p. 214), you 
may form a correct physiological notion of the essen- 
tial parts of all theories concerning fruits and seeds. 
For the details relating to so exceedingly curious a sub- 
ject, I must refer you to any very recent Introductions 
to Botany, in which the science is treated philosophi- 
cally. 


LETTER XLIX. 


A SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS, ACCORDING 
TO THEIR NATURAL RELATIONS, OR SUMS OF RE- 
SEMBLANCE. 


Aut that you have learned of the vegetable king- 
dom has been designedly desultory and unmethodical. 
My object has been not to engage your attention by 
explaining to you any particular system, but rather to 
store your mind with the facts upon which all systems 
must rest. 

But as all systems of arrangement must be unintel- 
ligible to those unacquainted with details, so on the 
other hand must the most copious and well considered 
details be deprived of a great part of their value, if 
they are not so arranged as to illustrate and explain 
each other, as well as to be found whenever the 
memory seeks for them. 

I shall, therefore, without further preface, give you 
in this letter a sketch of an arrangement of the com- 
moner Natural Orders of plants, according to their 
resemblances ; leaving you to make out the final dis- 
tinctions between them by such means as you now 
possess ; premising only, that throughout the whole of 
this compendium I have used the word tribe, as an 


equivalent for what is more generally termed a natural 
order. 


220 LETTER  Xbix; 


There are five CLasses into which all plants may 
be divided ; namely— 

I. Exocens, or DicoryLepons ; netted-leaved flower- 
ing plants, with two or more cotyledons to their 
embryo, and seeds enclosed in a seed-vessel. 

II. Gymnosperms ; parallel-veined or fork-veined 
flowering plants, with two or more cotyledons to 
their leaves, and seeds formed without the pro- 
tection of a seed-vessel. 

III. Expocens, or MonocoryLepons; parallel-veined 
flowering plants, with only one cotyledon. 

IV. Ruizantus; leafless parasitical flowering plants, 
with no cotyledons. 

V. Acrocens, or AcotyLepons; plants having no 
true flowers that.can be distinguished, and no 
cotyledons. 


Each class is subdivided according to special rules, 
and must be treated of separately. 


Class I. EXOGENS. 


The Suscuasses are three ; namely— 


1. Poryperatous plants ; in which the petals are all 
distinct. 

2. Monoperatous plants; in which the petals are 
united into a tube. 

3. Incomplete plants; in which there are no petals, 
and very often not even a calyx. 


Each of these subclasses may be again subdivided 
into groups, as follows :— 


i. 


SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. 221 
Polypetalous Exogens. 


Subclass I. Potyperatous Puants. 
The groups are seven ; namely— 


Albuminous ; a very minute embryo in the midst of 
a large quantity of albumen. ‘This group is sepa- 
rated from the following, because of its remark- 
able character, and may comprehend all the 
modifications of structure by which the six fol- 
lowing groups are known. In none of the latter 
is there an embryo much smaller than the albu- 
men; so that, in analyzing the subclass, the 
student may divide it into two parts, one con- 
sisting of the albuminous group exclusively, and 
the other of the six other groups. 


. Epigynous ; alarge embryo; an inferior ovary ; the 


placentation not parietal; the carpels consoli- 
dated ; the calyx in a perfect whorl. 

Parietose ; a large embryo; an inferior or superior 
ovary indifferently ; the placente parietal; the 
carpels consolidated; the calyx m a _ perfect 
whorl. 

Calycose ; a large embryo; a superior ovary ; the 
placente not parietal; the carpels consolidated 
or not; the calyx in a broken whorl. 

Syncarpous ; a large embryo; a superior ovary ; 
the placentz not parietal; the carpels consolidated ; 
the calyx in a perfect whorl. 

Gynobaseous ; a large embryo; a superior ovary ; 
the cells of which are placed obliquely round a 
conical centre, and do not exceed five in number ; 


222 LETTER XLIX. 
Polypetalous Albuminous Exogens. 
carpels consolidated or distinct ; calyx in a per- 
fect whorl. — 
7. Apocarpous; a large embryo; a superior ovary ; 
carpels distinct, and not oblique, if five in num- 
ber; calyx in a perfect whorl. 


Each group is further subdivided into smaller 
clusters, called Alliances; but as you are not ac- 
quainted with a sufficient quantity of plants to appre- 
ciate such refinements, I shall in this and the suc- 
ceeding classes simply place the orders you have 
studied, and a very few others, in little clusters under 
each of the foregoing groups : adding to their Eng- 
lish names their more exact scientific denominations. 


Group I. Albuminous. 


a. The Crowfoot Tribe (Ranunculacee), Plate I. 1. 
The Poppy Tribe (Papaveracez), Plate I. 2. 
The Fumitory Tribe (Fumariacez). 
The Water Lily Tribe (Nymphezacez), Plate 
XLIX. 2. 
b. The Nutmeg Tribe (Myristicacez). 
The Magnolia ‘Tribe (Magnoliacee), Plate 
RN Te 
The Anona Tribe (Anonacez). 
The Dillenia Tribe (Dilleniacee). 
c. The Umbelliferous Tribe (A piace or Umbellifere), 
Plate II. 1. 
The Aralia Tribe (Araliacee). 


SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. 223 
Polypetalous Epigynous Exogens. 


d. ‘The Gooseberry Tribe (Grossulacee), Plate 
XMVIT 1. 
The Escallonia Tribe (Escalloniacez). 


e. The Barberry Tribe (Berberacee), Plate XX VI. 2. 
The Vine Tribe (Vitacez), Plate XX VII. 2. 
The Pittosporum Tribe (Pittosporacez), Plate 

XXVIII. 1. 
The Francoa Tribe (Francoacee). 
The Sundew Tribe (Droseracee), Plate X X XIII. 2. 
The Sidesaddle-flower Tribe (Sarraceniacee ). 


Group 2. Epigynous. 


a. The Evening Primrose Tribe (Onagracez), Plate 
EET. 1: 
The Enchanter’s Nightshade Tribe (Circeez). 
The Combretum Tribe (Combretacez). 
The Melastoma Tribe (Melastomacee). 
The Myrtle Tribe (Myrtacex), Plate III. 2. 
The Syringa Tribe (Philadelphacez). 


b. The Dogwood ‘Tribe (Cornacez). 
The Miseltoe Tribe (Loranthacee). 


c. The Gourd Tribe (Cucurbitacee), Plate XXX. 2. 
The Loasa Tribe (Loasacez). 
The Cactus Tribe (Cactacez), Plate XXX. 1. 
The Fig-Marigold Tribe (Mesembryacex), Plate 
RX ATA: 
The Begonia Tribe (Begoniacee), Plate XX XI. 
IF 


QA4, LETTER Xbix. 


a. 


a. 


Polypetalous Parietose Exogens. 


Group 3. Parietose. 


The Cruciferous Tribe (Brassicacez or Cruciferae), 
Plate IV. 1. 

The Caper Tribe (Capparidacee), Plate XXIX. 2. 

The Mignonette Tribe (Resedacee), Plate X XIX. 
He 


. The Violet Tribe (Violacee), Plate IV. 2. 


The Frankenia Tribe (Frankeniacee). 


The Passion-flower Tribe (Passifloracex), Plate 
ee 
The Turnera Tribe (Turneracee). 


Group 4. Calycose. 


. The Guttiferous Tribe (Clusiaceze or Guttifere). 


The Tutsan Tribe (Hypericaces), Plate V. 2. 


. The Tea Tribe (Ternstromiacez), 


The Maple Tribe (Aceracez). 

The Horse-chesnut Tribe (/Esculacez), Plate 
SAX VIEL. 

The Soap-berry Tribe (Sapindacez). 

The Milk-wort Tribe (Polygalacez), Plate 
RGV TLE .2: 


. The Rock Rose Tribe (Cistacez), Plate XX XII. 2. 


The Flax Tribe (Linacee), Plate XX XIX. 1. 


Group 5. Syncarpous. 
The Lythrum Tribe (Lythracez), Plate XX XII. 1. 
The Mallow Tribe (Malvacex), Plate VI. 1. 


d. 


© 
~ 
wt 


SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. ‘ 


Polypetalous Syncarpous Exogens. 


The Sterculia Tribe (Sterculiacez). 
The Linden Tribe (Tiliacez). 


. The Orange Tribe (Aurantiacez), Plate VI. 2. 
. The Buckthorn Tribe (Rhamnacez), Plate 


>, 1, Oa 0 Oe 

The Euphorbia Tribe (Euphorbiacee), Plate 
XXXVITI. 2. 

The Crowberry Tribe (Empetracez). 

The Celastrus Tribe (Celastracee). 

The Bladder-nut Tribe (Staphyleacez). 

The Malpighia Tribe (Malpighiacee). 

The Lychnis Tribe (Silenacee), Plate VII. 1. 

The Chickweed Tribe (Alsinacee). 

The Purslane Tribe (Portulacacez), Plate VII. 2. 

The ‘Tamarisk ‘Tribe (Tamaricacee), Plate 
MR MATT: 1: 

The Knot-Grass Tribe (Illecebracez). 


Group 6. G'ynobaseous. 


. The Rue Tribe (Rutacez), Plate XX XIX. 2. 


The Bean-Caper Tribe (Zygophyllacez ). 
The Yellow-wood Tribe (Xanthoxylacez). 


. The Geranium Tribe (Geraniacez), Plate IT. 2. 


The Balsam Tribe (Balsaminacez), 
The Nasturtium Tribe (Tropzole). 
The Wood-sorrel Tribe (Oxalidacez). 


. The Coriaria Tribe (Coriariacee), 


d. The Limnanthes Tribe (Limnanthacez). 


MOLT. Q 


226 LETTER XLIX. 
Polypetalous Apocarpous Exogens. 


Group 7. Apocarpous. 


a. The Rose Tribe (Rosacez), Plate VIII. 1. 
The Apple Tribe (Pomez). 
The Almond Tribe (Amygdalez). 
The Burnet Tribe (Sanguisorbee). 
The Pea Tribe (Leguminose), Plate VIII. 2. 
The Carolina Allspice Tribe (Calycanthacez). 


b. The Saxifrage Tribe (Saxifragacee), Plate 
XXXVIT. 2. 
The Bauera Tribe (Baueracee). 
The Houseleek Tribe (Crassulacee), Plate 
XXXVII. 1. 


Subclass II. Monopetratous PLaAnrTs. 


The groups are five ; namely— 


= 


. Polycarpous ; ovary of several carpels, either dis- 
tinct or consolidated, and never inferior, except 
in one case; fruit never bony and nut-like. 

. Epigynous ; ovary of several carpels, either distinct 
or consolidated, and inferior in all cases. 

3. Aggregose; ovary of one carpel only, and that 

either superior or inferior. 

4. Iucamentous ; ovary of two or more carpels, which 
change to bony nuts or seed-like pericarps, and 
are never inferior. 

5. Dicarpous ; ovary of two carpels, which are always 


cS) 


superior, and do not change to bony nuts or seed- 
like pericarps. 
The commoner natural orders belonging to these 
roups, are as follows:— 


g 
to) 


da. 


= 
~ 


SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. F 


Monopetalous Exogens. 


Group 1. Polycarpous. 
The Winter-green Tribe (Pyrolacez). 
The Monotropa Tribe (Monotropacez). 
The Heath Tribe (Ericacee), Plate XII. 1. 
The Bilberry Tribe (Vaccinacez). 
The Epacris Tribe (Epacridacee), Plate XLII. 2. 


. The Primrose Tribe (Primulacex), Plate XLII. 1. 


The Myrsien Tribe (Myrsinacez). 
The Holly Tribe (Aquifoliacez). 
The Styrax Tribe (Styracez). 


. The Nolana Tribe (Nolanaceze). 


The Bindweed Tribe (Convolvulacez), Plate XII, 2. 

The Dodder Tribe (Cuscutacee). 

The Greek Valerian Tribe (Polemoniacee), Plate 
LEER. ‘1: 

The Diapensia Tribe (Diapensiacee). 

The Hydrolea Tribe (Hydroleacez). 


Group 2. Epigynous. 


. The Lobelia Tribe (Lobeliacez). 


The Harebell Tribe (Campanulacez), Plate XIV. 1. 
The Stylidium Tribe (Stylidiacez). 
The Goodenia ‘Tribe (Goodeniacez), 


. The Coffee Tribe (Cinchonacee). 


The Honey-suckle Tribe (Caprifoliacee), Plate 
XIV. 2. 

The Madder Tribe (Galiacez, or Stellatz), Plate 
ba hoes 


228 LETTER XLIX. 
Monopetalous Exogens. 


Group 3. Aggregose. 
a. The Composite-flowered Tribe (Asteracee or 
Composite), Plate X VII. 1. 
The Scabious Tribe (Dipsacez), Plate XLIV. 2. 
The Valerian Tribe (Valerianacez). 
The Brunonia ‘Tribe (Brunoniacez). 
b. The Rib-grass Tribe (Plantaginacee), Plate X VII. 
2. 
The Globularia Tribe (Globulariacez). 
The Leadwort ‘Tribe (Plumbaginacez). 


Group 4. Nucamentous. 


a. The Water-leaf Tribe (Hydrophyllacez). 
The Borage Tribe (Boraginacez), Plate XV. 1. 
b. The Mint Tribe (Lamiacee, or Labiate), Plate 
OV Es 
The Vervain Tribe (Verbenacez). 
The Myoporum ‘Tribe (Myoporacez). 


Group 5. Dicarpous. 


a. The Trumpet-flower Tribe (Bignoniacez), Plate 
XLITI. 2. 
b. The Justicia Tribe (Acanthacee). 
The Butterwort Tribe (Lentibulacez). 
The Gesnera ‘Tribe (Gesneracez). 
The Broom-Rape Tribe (Orobanchacez). 
The Foxglove Tribe (Scrophulariacee), Plate 
Va: 


SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. 229 
Monopetalous Exogens. 


. The Nightshade Tribe (Solanaceze), Plate XV. 2. 
. The Gentian Tribe (Gentianacee), Plate XIII. 1. 
The Wormseed Tribe (Spigeliacez). , 
The Apocynum Tribe (Apocynacee), 
The Asclepias Tribe (Asclepiadaceee), Plate X LV. 2. 


. The Olive Tribe (Oleacee), Plate XIII. 2. 
The Jasmine Tribe (Jasminacee), Plate XLV. 1. 


Subclass III. Incompiete Puants. 


The groups are five ; namely— 

1. Mectembryous ; calyx imperfect ; embryo straight. 

. Achlamydeous ; calyx entirely wanting. 

. Tubiferous ; calyx tubular, often resembling a 

corolla; embryo straight; ovary usually one- 

celled. 

. Columnous ; calyx perfect ; ovary 3-6-celled ; em- 

bryo straight. 

. Curvembryous ; calyx perfect; embryo curved like 
a horse-shoe. 

The common natural orders belonging to these 

groups are as follows :— 

Group 1. LRectembryous. 

. The Oak Tribe (Corylacee or Cupuliferee), Plate 

The Birch Tribe (Betulacez). 

The Garrya Tribe (Garryacee). 


. The Nettle Tribe (Urticacee), Plate XI. 1. 


230 DETEER, KLIS 


al. 


a . 


Incomplete Exogens. 


The Elm Tribe (Ulmacez). 


The Gale Tribe (Myricacez). 
The Walnut Tribe(Juglandacee), Plate XX XVL2 


Group 2. Achlamydeous. 


. The Saururus Tribe (Saururacez). 


The Pepper Tribe (Piperacez). 


. The Willow Tribe (Salicacee), Plate XI. 2. 


The Plane Tribe (Platanacez). 


. The Callitriche Tribe (Callitrichacee). 


Group 3. Tubiferous. 
The Oleaster Tribe (Eleagnacez). 
The Mezereum Tribe (Thymelacez), Plate X LI. 1. 
The Protea ‘Tribe (Proteacee), Plate IX. 1. 


. The Cinnamon Tribe (Lauraceze), Plate XLI. 2. 


Group 4. Columnous. 
The Birthwort Tribe (Aristolochiacee), Plate 


RACV, At. 
The Nepenthes Tribe (Nepenthacez). 


Group 5. Curvembryous. 
The Amaranth Tribe (Amaranthacee), Plate 
1b Ogee 
The Goosefoot Tribe (Chenopodiacez), Plate XL. 2. 
The Tetragonia Tribe (Tetragoniacee ). 
The Phytolacca Tribe (Phytolaccacez). 
The Buck-wheat ‘Tribe (Polygonacez) Plate XL. 1. 


SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. 231 


Endogens. 


b. The Knawel Tribe (Scleranthacez). 
The Marvel of Peru Tribe (Nyctaginacee), Plate 
CAE 


Class II. GYMNOSPERMS. 
The Fir Tribe (Pinacez or Conifere). 
The Yew Tribe (Taxacez). 
The Cycas Tribe (Cycadacee). 
The Horsetail Tribe (Equisetacez). 


Class III. ENDOGENS. 


There are no subclasses; but there are five prin- 
cipal groups, viz. :— 
1. Epigynous; ovary wmferior; stamens and style 
distinct. 
2. Gynandrous ; ovary inferior ; stamens and style con- 
solidated. 
FT ypogynous ; ovary superior ; flowers perfect. 
. Spadiceous ; ovary superior ; flowers usually in a 
spadix, imperfect, either naked, or composed of 
a whorl of scales. 
5. Glumose ; ovary superior ; flowers imperfect, com- 
posed of imbricated ribbed bracts. 


ee 


Under these groups are arranged the following 
natural orders :— 


Group 1. Epigynous. 
The Ginger Tribe (Zingiberacezx),. 
The Arrow-root Tribe (Marantacee). 
The Banana Tribe (Musacez). 


932 LETTER XEARS 


a. 


Endogens. 


. The Narcissus Tribe (Amaryllidacexr), Plate 


hOB Uf Be & 
The Cornflag Tribe (Iridacee), Plate XVIII. 2. 
The Pine Apple Tribe (Bromeliacee). 


Group 2. Gynandrous. 
The Orchis Tribe (Orchidacee), Plate XIX. 2. 
The Vanilla Tribe (Vanillacee). 


Group 3. Hypogynous. 


. The Palm Tribe (Palmacez). 
..The Lily Tribe (Liliacee), Plate XX. 1. 


The Asphodel Tribe (Asphodelee), Plate XIX. 1. 
The Colchicum Tribe (Melanthacez). 


. The Spiderwort Tribe (Commelinacee). 


The Flowering Rush Tribe (Butomacez). 

The Water Plantain Tribe (Alismacez), Plate 
MLIXo 1. 

The Rush Tribe (Juncacez), Plate XX. 2. 


Group 4. Spadiceous. 


The Arum Tribe (Aracee), Plate XLVI. 2. 
The Acorus Tribe (Acoracee). 
The Bulrush Tribe (Typhacee), Plate XXI. 1. 


. The Naiad Tribe (Naiadacez). 


The Arrow-grass ‘Tribe (Juncaginacee), Plate 
2: 
The Duckweed Tribe (Pistiacez), Plate XXI. 3. 


SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT. 233 


Acrogens. 
Group 5. Glumose. 


The Grass Tribe (Graminacee), Plate XXII. 1. 
The Sedge Tribe (Cyperacee), Plate XXII. 2. 


Class IV. RHIZANTHS. 


There are no plants of this class either cultivated in 


gardens, or wild in the North of Europe. 


Class V. ACROGENS. 


Neither subclasses nor groups are distinguished in 


this class ; the commoner natural orders are— 


a. 


The Fern Tribe (Filicales), Plate XXIII, 1. 

The Club-moss ‘Tribe (Lycopodiacee), Plate 
XXIII. 2. 

The Moss Tribe (Bryacee or Musci), Plate 
MeV YX. 

The Jungermannia Tribe (Jungermanniacee), 
Plate XXIV. 2. 

The Liverwort Tribe (Marchantiacee or Hepatice). 


. The Chara Tribe (Characez). 
. The Mushroom Tribe (Fungacee), Plate XXV. 


3. 
The Lichen Tribe (Lichenacee), Plate XXV. 1. 
The Sea-weed Tribe (Algacee), Plate XXV. 2. 


LETTER L. 


AN ARTIFICIAL METHOD OF DISCOVERING WITH CER- 
TAINTY THE NATURAL ORDER TO WHICH A GIVEN 
PLANT BELONGS. 


PLLA RPDLDI PLP LIAL LIAL LIDLDLLI ALL LP 


Ir is to be supposed that you are by this time well 
grounded in the distinctions of the commoner Na- 
tural Orders of plants; and my last letter will 
have furnished you with the means of arranging your 
knowledge in a methodical way. I, therefore, might 
with this have left you to your own resources in future, 
or have referred you to the higher systematical works 
of Botanists, for the means of carrying your inquiries 
further. But I am so anxious to remove every 
impediment from your path, that I have prepared for 
you a set of tables, by means of which you may with 
certainty discover to what Natural Order any given 
plant belongs, without being obliged to examine it so 
minutely as is in some instances necessary in a natural 
arrangement. 

You will, doubtless, have remarked, that some of the 
distinctions between the groups, as disposed in my 
last letter, are minute, and difficult to discover ; espe- 
cially those which are taken from the structure of the | 
seed. You will also find, in practice, that there are 
many exceptions to the characters of the subclasses 
and groups; for instance, Virgin's Bower (Clematis), 


Spurge (Euphorbia), Mare’s-tail (Hippuris), and La- 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. 235 


dies’-mantle (Alchemilla), belonging to the Polypetalous 
subclass of Exogens, have in reality no petals ; Glaua, 
belonging to the Monopetalous subclass of Exogens, 
has no petals; Correa, belonging to the Polypetalous 
subclass of Exogens, has a monopetalous corolla ; and 
soon. No doubt, a Botanist who has had a little 
experience, overcomes these difficulties easily enough, 
because he will recognize the plants by the remainder 
of their structure, and notwithstanding their deviation 
from the general rule. But, although there exist ex- 
ceptions to all rules whatsoever, and every person 
must, therefore, be accustomed to contend with them, 
whatever the branch of knowledge to which his studies 
have been directed; yet it must be confessed, that 
they are always very embarrassing to a beginner, and 
should be provided against by the best means that can 
be devised. Therefore, as my parting gift, and an 
appropriate conclusion to the correspondence that has 
passed between us, I send you a key, not only to all 
the Natural Orders of plants you have yet seen, but also 
to such others as you are at all likely to meet with. 

It is only necessary for you to know how to use 
this key, and I confidently expect you will be at once 
relieved from all future embarrassment, both in dis- 
tinguishing the orders themselves, and in guarding 
yourself against errors arising from exceptional cases. 
I would, indeed, advise you at first to use your key in 
all cases whatever, whether of doubt or not; for you 
will find it give you a habit of examining plants care- 
fully, instead of looking at them superficially. 

The principle upon which the key is constructed is 


2936 LETTER L. 


always to contrast characters in pairs, and to refer 
from one contrast to another, till at last there is no- 
thing left out of which a further contrast can be 
drawn up ; at that point, where comparison ceases, you 
ought to find the object of your search. ‘This, which is 
called the dichotomous analysis, is that, in fact, which 
the human mind habitually, though unconsciously, 
employs in all its operations ; and it possesses the great 
merit of being unerring, provided the comparisons 
are made with due caution. The best mode of in- 
structing you how to use it, is to select a few examples; 
first, of plants conformable to the characters assigned 
to their orders ; and, secondly, of others which offer 
exceptions to their characters. 

The Pellitory (Parietaria officinalis), is a plant quite 
conformable to the characters assigned to its order. 
Take it as a test. You look to the first pair of cha- 
racters, or contrast No. 1. in the table, and you have 
no difficulty in deciding that it belongs to “ Plants 
having distinct and visible flowers ;” the No. 2. at 
the end of that line carries you to contrast No. 2. where 
it agrees with ‘ Leaves not veined,” &c. Then, you 
proceed to No. 3. where you find that the Pellitory 
agrees with “ Flowers incomplete, that is, having no 
corolla.” You are now referred to No. 97. where you 
see that your plant corresponds with the character 
“Calyx present in some kind of state ;” this takes 
you to No. 105. where you have no difficulty in 
selecting. ‘‘ Ovary superior,” referring to No. 119. as 
that which suits your plant. At 119, “ Leaves with 
stipules” corresponds with the Pellitory, and thus you 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. 237 


reach No. 120. At that point you, of course, take 
“ Flowers unisexual,” and so proceed to No. 121. 
Here you find ‘“ Carpels solitary,’ contrasted with 
‘‘Carpels more than 1;” and it is obvious that your 
plant belongs to the first; it is, therefore, of the 
Nettle Tribe ; and thus you have reached the desired 
information. 

Let Sage (Salvia officinalis) be the next plant for 
trying the key. Without going over again the words of 
the earlier parts of the contrast, it is sufficient to say, 
that No. 1. refers you to No. 2., No. 2. to No. 3., 
No. 3. to No. 4., No. 4. to No. 157.; hence we will 
proceed more carefully. At this pomt ‘‘ Ovary supe- 
rior” sends you to No. 158.; thence “ Flowers irre- 
gular” take you to No. 185.; when there you have 
“ Ovary four-lobed,” contrasted with ‘* Ovary undi- 
vided,” and as your Sage corresponds with the former, 
it belongs to the Mint Tribe. 

Now, for a case or two of plants that do not cor- 
respond with all the characters assigned to the orders 
to which they belong. It is here that the tables 
should be of the greatest use; for the last thing 
which a student learns, is how to deal with exceptions. 
Glaux, a little coast plant, common on the sandy 
beach in many places, is a remarkable puzzle; it 
is destitute of corolla, and yet it belongs to the Mono- 
petalous Primrose Tribe, with which it corresponds in 
every thing, except the presence of a corolla. You 
will readily detect its place in the system by the table. 
As before, No. 1. refers you to No. 2.; No. 2. to 


No. 3.; No. 3. to No, 97., where it corresponds with 


238 LETTER’ i 


** Calyx present in some kind of state,” 105.3; at that 
number “ Ovary superior” carries you forward to No. 
119.; at that point, “Leaves without stipules” refer you 
to No. 135.; there “ Flowers bisexual ” take you to No. 
134.; thence ‘* Sepals more than two,” to No. 135. 
There you may be stopped by not knowing whether 
Glaux, with a one-celled ovary, and a free central 
placenta, belongs to 136. or 144.; but a little re- 
flection will remind you, that such a structure is a 
consequence of the consolidation of several carpels 
(see Vol. 2. page 214.), and, consequently, you de- 
cide for No. 136.; at that contrast, ‘‘ Placentas in 
the axis” correspond with your plant, and you move 
on to No. 137.; thence by ‘‘ Number of ovules very 
oreat,” to No. 140.; then by ‘Carpels conso- 
lidated at the point” to No. 141., whence “ Stamens 
perigynous,” carry you to No. 142., where, finally, you 
have the character ‘“ Fruit one-celled,” which safely 
disembarks you in the desired haven, the land of the 
Primrose Tribe. 

Another instance, and I have done. Correa, a com- 
mon, and very pretty genus of the Rue Tribe, has its 
petals united into a tube, so as to seem as if mono- 
petalous, although the plant belongs to a Polypetalous 
order. ‘This, then, is a great puzzle to a beginner, 
and a fitting subject by which to try the goodness of 
the tables. You will first proceed from No. 1. to No. 
2.; from No. 2. to No. 3.; and from No. 3. to No. 4. 
Here, if Correa were conformable to the character of 
its order, you would proceed to No. 5.; but, as it is 
monopetalous, and, therefore, unconformable, you take 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. 239 


another road, and advance at once to No. 157. Irom 
that point, “ Ovary superior” leads you to No. 158. ; 
thence ‘“ Flowers regular” to No. 159.; from that 
you are conducted by “ Ovary lobed” to No. 160. ; 
where the “ dotted leaves” fix your plant with the 
Rue Tribe, to which it really belongs. 

Nothing can be more easy than the use of this 
table; and now that you possess it, I confidently 
expect that you will say in your next letter, “ Now 
you have indeed shewn me the way out of my per- 
plexities.” Remember only that the table is not 
contrived to meet all cases whatsoever, for a great 
many Natural Orders are not even mentioned in it. 
It is only framed to enable you to master such diffi- 
culties as you, as a learner, may be expected to meet 
with, either in fields or gardens. 


TABLE. 
1. Plants having distinct and visible flowers . 2 
Plants having no visible flowers : 225 
2. Leaves net-veined. Wood in _ concentric 
layers : é : : 3 
Leaves straight-veined, or feather-veined. 
Wood not in concentric layers i 205 


3. Flowers complete; that is, age both calyx 
and corolla : 4 


Flowers incomplete ; that j 1S, bane no corolla 97 


4. Corolla polypetalous ; that is, the petals distinet 5 


Corolla monopetalous ; that is, the petals jomed 
into a tube : ; 4 157 


24.0 


Esp 


6. 


10. 


: gl 


13. 


14. 


LETTER L. 


Stamens more than twenty 6 
Stamens fewer than twenty : ; 3h 
Ovary inferior; that is, adhering to the calyx 
more or less : : 7 
Ovary superior; that is, not adhering at all to 
the calyx. : : ‘ 14 
. Leaves with stipules ; The Apple Tr. 
Leaves without stipules - - 8 
Carpels more or less distinct from each 
other ; : The Bauera Tr. 
Carpels wholly combined : : 2 


Placentas spread over the whole surface of 
the partitions of the fruit The Water Lily Tr. 


Placentas confined to the centre or sides of the 


fruit 3 j : ; 10 
Placentas parietal; that is, adhermg to the 

sides of the fruit ; § rt 
Placentas central; that is, growing together 

in the middle of the fruit ‘ : 12 
Petals few in number, and different from the 

sepals , , The Loasa Tr. 
Petals numerous, and undistinguishable from 

the sepals : ; The Cactus Tr. 
Leaves with little transparent dots The Myrtle Tr. 
Leaves quite opaque f : 13 
Petals very numerous The Fig-Marigold Tr. 


Petals very few (4—5) : The Syringa Tr. 


Leaves with stipules : : 15 
Léaves without stipules " : Q] 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. 41 


15. Carpels more or less distinct é 16 
Carpels wholly consolidated. ; 17 
16. Stamens hypogynous : The Magnolia Tr. 
Stamens perigynous The Rose Tr. 
17. AEstivation of the calyx imbricated : 18 
lstivation of the calyx valvate ; 20 
18. Flowers unisexual; that is, stamens in one 


20. 


21. 


22. 


23. 


24. 


25. 


26. 


. Sepals two : : The Purslane Tr. 


flower, and pistil in another The Euphorbia Tr. 


Flowers bisexual; that is, with stamens and 
pistil in the same flower 


19 


Sepals three or five ’ The Rock Rose Tr. 


Stamens monadelphous ; that is, united with 


each other in a tube The Mallow Tr. 
Stamens all distinct ; The Linden Tr. 
Carpels more or less distinct : a2 
Carpels quite consolidated . ; 25 
Stamens perigynous. aS theese he. 
Stamens hypogynous : : 23 
Calyx in a broken whorl The Tutsan Tr. 
Calyx in a perfect whorl . : 24. 
Acrid nauseous herbs The Crowfoot Tr. 
Aromatic shrubs or trees The Anona Tr. 
Fruit one-celled : d 26 
Fruit many-celled : : oF 
Ovary stalked. Sap watery The Caper Tr. 
Ovary sessile. Sap milky The Poppy Tr. 


27. Placentas spreadover the dissep. The Water Lily Tr. 


Placentas in the axis of the fruit : 28 


VOL. II. R 


242 


28. 


29. 


30. 


31. 


33. 


34. 


35. 


36. 


37. 


38. 


39. 


40. 


LETTER L. 
Stigma large broad and peltate The Sidesaddle Tr. 
Stigma small and simple A : 29 
Ovary one-celled The Purslane Tr. 
Ovary many-celled : ; : 30 


Calyx tubular furrowed. Stamens perigynous 


The Lythrum Tr. 


Calyx of three or five leaves in a broken whorl. 


Stamens hypogynous The Rock Rose Tr. 
Ovary more or less inferior é 32 
Ovary entirely superior . : Ad 

. Leaves with stipules : 33 
Leaves without any stipules : : 34 
Flowers unisexual : The Begonia Tr. 
Flowers bisexual . . The Buckthorn Tr. 
Placentas parietal 5 , : 35 
Placentas in the axis , ; 36 
Flowers unisexual d The Gourd Tr. 
Flowers bisexual ; The Currant Tr. 
Flowers in umbels . The Umbelliferous Tr. 
Flowers not in umbels. : ; 37 
Carpels solitary é . The Combretum Tr. 
Carpels more than one. , : 38 
Carpels divaricating at pot The Saxifrage Tr. 
Carpels quite parallel and united : 39 
/Estivation of calyx valvate ; é 40 
/Estivation of calyx imbricated . s 42 
Fruit many seeded . Zhe Evening Primrose Tr. 


Fruit very few seeded ; E ‘ 41 


41. 


42. 


43. 


44. 


45. 


4.6. 


47. 


48. 


49. 


30. 


dl. 


52. 


53. 


4. 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. 243 


Stamens opposite the petals . Zhe Buckthorn Tr. 
Stam. alternate with the petals The Dogwood Tr. 


Leaves dotted ; R The M ere Tr. 
Leaves not dotted : ; 43 
Stam. doubled downin flower-bud TheMelastomaT’r. 
Stamens erect ; The Escalloma Tr. 
Leaves with stipules : : : 45 
Leaves without stipules . : : 60 
Carpels distinct or solitary 46 
Carpels consolidated : - : 48 
Anthers with recurved valves . The Barberry Tr. 
Anthers with longitudinal valves ; 47 
Fruit a pod ; : nun Lhewes FR 
Fruit a capsule, or little drupe . Zhe Rose Tr. 
Placentas parietal é : . 49 
Placentas in the axis ; : 5A 
Flowers with filamentous crown The Passion Fl. Tr. 
Flowers crownless : : ; 50 
Leaves circinate ; that is, coiled up, when 

young : : . The Sun-dew Tr. 
Leaves straight when young . The Violet Tr. 
Styles distinct to the base ; : 52 
Styles more or less combined E : 54 
Flowers unisexual . The Euphorbia Tr. 
Flowers bisexual ; ‘ 53 
Petals very minute , T he Knotgrass Tr. 
Petals very obvious ; The Saxifrage Tr. 
fEstivation of calyx imbricated . SD 
/Estivation of calyx valvate : d 59 


rR 2 


Or 
~~ 


LETTER L. 


. Leaves regularly opposite ; ‘ 56 


Leaves alternate, or only occasionally opposite tas | 


. Stem articulated; i. e. separating into distinct 


pieces at the joints The Bean-caper Tr. 
Stem continuous The Bladder Nut Tr. 


. Calyx in a complete whorl . : 58 


Calyx ina broken whorl . The Soap-tree Tr. 
Calyx of only two sepals . The Purslane Tr. 


. Fruit beaked : oe The Geranium Tr. 


Fruit not beaked : The Wood Sorrel Tr. 


. Stamens perigynous . The Buckthorn Tr. 


Stamens hypogynous , § The Vine Tr. 


. Carpels more or less distinct, or solitary 61 


Carpels consolidated ; ; ; 68 


; Anthers with recurved valyes . The Barberry Tr. 


Anthers with longitudinal valves. ‘ 62 


. Fruit a legume 3 , The Pea Tr. 


Fruit not a legume x : . 63 


. Carpels with hypogynous scales. - 64 


Carpels without hypogynous scales : 65 


. One hypog. scale to each carpel The Houseleek Tr. 


Two hypog. scales to each carpel The Francoa Tr. 


. Cal. & cor. undistinguishable The Carolina A Usp. Tr. 


Calyx and corolla quite different . ; 66 


. Herbaceous plants ; The Crowfoot Tr. 


Trees or shrubs : ; 67 


. Cal. and cor. divided into threes The Anona Tr. 


Cal. and cor. divided into fours The Coriaria Tr. 


68. 


69. 


70. 


ts 


712. 


73. 


74. 


15. 


76. 


77: 


78. 


79. 


80. 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. 245 


Fruit one-celled ; if two-celled, then the dis- 


sepiment a spurious one : : 69 
Fruit with several cells ; . 73 
Stamens tetradynamous; that is, four long 

and two short ; The Cruciferous Tr. 
Stamens not tetradynamous : . 79 
Hypogynous, disk large : . 71 
Hypogynous, disk absent : . 72 
Ovary stalked . ‘ : The Caper Tr. 
Ovary sessile , The Mignonette Tr. 


Calyx 5-leaved : : The Turnera Tr. 
Calyx 3 or 4-leaved : « LiPhe Poppy: Pr 


Placentas covering the dissep. The Water-Lily Tr. 


Placentas confined to the axis : 74 
Styles distinct to the base : . 75 
Styles consolidated : F : 80 
Calyx in a broken whorl : ; 76 
Calyx in a perfect whorl : 77 
Stamens in several parcels The r utsan Tr. 


Stam. in a perfect whorl (monadelphous) Flax Tr. 


Carpels each subtended ky an hypogynous 
scale ; The Houseleek Tr. 


Carpels scaleless : ‘ 78 


Carpels 2, divaricating atend The Saxifrage Tr. 


Carpels more than two, often with a free 


central placenta : : 79 
Calyx tubular ; : The Catchfly Tr. 
Calyx 5-, or 4-parted The Chickweed Tr. 
ZEstivation of calyx imbricated 81 


ZEstiwation of calyx valvate or open. 96 


24.6 
roe 


82. 


83. 


84. 


85. 


86. 


87. 


88. 


89. 


90. 


91. 


92. 


93. 


94. 


LETTER L. 
Sepals in a broken whorl . - 82 
Sepals in a complete whorl : : 85 
Fruit splitting into valves The Horsechesnut Tr. 
Fruit not splitting : : : 83 
Calyx papilionaceous : The Milkwort Tr. 
Calyx uniform : : : 84 
Petals without appendages. The Maple Tr. 
Petals with appendages . The Soap-tree Tr. 
Flowers unisexual : : ; 86 
Flowers bisexual 3 : 87 
Leaves dotted : The Yellowwood Tr. 
Leaves heath-like and dotless The Crowberry Tr. 
Leaves dotted : : , 88 
Leaves not dotted ; : 89 
Fruit a dry capsule. : The Rue Tr. 
Fruit a succulent berry : The Orange Tr. 
Flowers irregular : P The Balsam Tr. 
Flowers regular : 3 : 90- 
Carpels four or more. : : 91 
Carpels fewer than four : 93 
Ovary 5-parted : The Limnanthe Tr. 
Ovary undivided f 3 92 
Stamens distinct : : The Heath Tr. 
Stamens monadelphous The Bread-tree Tr. 
Calyx with two sepals : The Purslane Tr. 
Calyx with more than two sepals : 94 
Stamens hypogynous , : 95 


Stamens perigynous ; The Celastrus Tr. 


95. 


96. 


97. 


98. 


99. 


100. 


101. 


102. 


103. 


104. 


105. 


106. 


107. 


108. 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. Q4:7 


Seeds with a tuft of hairs, or ahair Tamarisk T’r. 


Seeds naked ; The Pittosporum Tr. 
Seeds numerous : The Lythrum Tr. 
Seeds very few d The Buckthorn Tr. 
Calyx altogether absent : : 98 
Calyx present in some kind of state. 105 
Leaves having stipules 99 
Leaves destitute of stipules. ; 102 
Ovules very numerous . The Willow Tr. 
Ovules very few : 100 


Carp. triple; 1. e. 3 consolidated | aplrti LF 
Carpels single - : 101 
Ovule erect; leaves fragrant . The Gale EF. 
Ovule pendulous; leaves scentless The Plane Tr. 


Flowers unisexual A : ‘ 103 
Flowers bisexual . : The Pepper Tr. 
Ovules naked; fruit in cones . The Fir Tr. 
Ovules covered : : : 104 
Carpels single » : The Gale Tr. 
Carpels double , The Callitriche Tr. 
Ovary more or less inferior 106 
Ovary superior ; . : 119 
Leaves with stipules. - 107 
Leaves without stipules ; ; 109 
Flowers bisexual 2 The Birthwort Tr. 
Flowers unisexual 3 ° , 108 
Fruit in a cup, or cupule - The Nut Tr. 


Fruit triangular, naked The Begonia Tr. 


248 LETTER L. 
109. Flowers unisexual : ; : 110 
Flowers bisexual - : : 113 
110. Flowers in catkins : j és 111 
Flowers not in catkins The Gourd Tr. 
111. Leaves simple : . : 112 
Leaves pinnated . é The Walnut Tr. 
112. Leaves opposite. : The Garrya Tr. 
Leaves alternate : The Gale Tr. 
113. Leaves with transparent dots . The Myrtle Tr. 
Leaves dotless : : : 114 
114. Ovary many-celled : é 115 
Ovary one-celled t : : 116 
115. Ovary three or six-celled . The Birthwort Tr. 
Ovary four-celled The Evening Primrose Tr. 
116. Anther many-celled : The Miselto Tr. 
Anther two-celled : : : m7 
117. Stamens numerous, long . Zhe Combretum Tr. 
Stamens few and short ; : 118 
118. Embryo straight . The Evening Primrose Tr. 
Embryo curved : The Goosefoot Tr. 
119. Leaves with stipules. é : 120 
Leaves without stipules : : 133 
120. Flowers unisexual; that is, having sta- 


mens in one flower, and pistils in 

another . : : : 121 
Flowers bisexual; that is, having stamens 

and pistils united in the same flower 123 


. Carpels solitary : The Nettle Tr. 


Carpels more than one ‘ ‘ 122 


122. 


123. 


124. 


125. 


126. 


127. 


128. 


129. 


130. 


131. 


132. 


134. 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. 249 


Flowers in catkins , The Birch Tr. 
Flowers not in catkins The Euphorbia Tr. 
Sepals two ; ° The Purslane Tr. 
Sepals more than two : , 124. 
Carpels solitary, or quite separate : 125 
Carpels more than one, consolidated. 128 
Fruit a legume ; : The Pea Tr. 
Fruit not a legume i P 126 
Calyx membranous The Knotgrass Tr. 
Calyx firm and herbaceous : ; 127 
One style to each ovary : The Rose Tr. 


Three styles to each ovary The Buckwheat Tr. 


Placentas parietal . The Passion Flower Tr. 
Piacentas in the axis. ‘ : 129 


Calyx membranous and ragged The Elm Tr. 
Calyx firm and equally lobed . : 130 


Calyx valvate : : 131 
Calyx imbricated ; The Geranium Tr. 


Stamens monadelphous . The Sterculia Tr. 


Stamens distinct : - - 132 
Stam. 4-5, opposite the petals The Buckthorn Tr. 
Stamens 8-10 = : The Linden Tr. 


. Flowers bisexual ; that is, having both 


stamens and pistil in the same 
flower : . : 134 


Flowers unisexual ; that is, having stamens 
and pistils in separate flowers ‘ 155 


Sepals two ‘ . Lhe Purslane Tr. 
Sepals more than two ‘ ; 135 


LETTER L. 
. Carpels several, consolidated . , 136 
Carpels solitary, or if several quite distinct 144 
. Placentas parietal ; : The Poppy Tr. 
Placentas in the axis 3 : 137 
. Number of ovules very small. ; 138 
Number of ovules very great . . 140 
. Leaves dotted ; ; The Rue Tr. 
Leaves not dotted , : ; 139 
. Embryo curved The Virginian Poke Tr. 
Embryo straight : The Celastrus Tr. 
. Carpels divaricating at point The Saxifrage Tr. 
Carpels consolidated at the point : 141 
. Stamens perigynous. : ; 142 
‘Stamens hypogynons . : : 143 
. Fruit one-celled =. P The Primrose Tr. 
Fruit with several cells . Zhe Lythrum Tr. 
. Calyx tubular 3 : The Catchfly Tr. 
Calyx of distinct sepals The Chickweed Tr. 
. Carpels several : The Crowfoot Tr. 
Carpels solitary ; : : 145 
. Anther-valves recurved : ; 146 
Anther-valves straight ‘ 3 147 
. Leafy, erect, shrubs or trees The Cinnamon Tr. 
Leafless, twining herbs . The Cassytha Tr. 
. Fruit a legume ; . The Pea Tr. 
Fruit not a legume ; f 148 
. Calyx hardened in the fruit j 149 


Calyx always membranous 150 


149. 


150. 


151. 


152. 


153. 


154. 


155. 


156. 


157. 


158. 


159. 


160. 


161. 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. Q51 


Base of calyx hardened The Marvel of Peru Tr. 
Whole tube of calyx hardened The Knawel Tr. 


Fruit triangular The Buckwheat Tr. 
Fruit round : ; 151 


Stam. in the points of the sepals The Protea Tr. 
Stamens not in the points of the sepals 152 


Leaves covered with scurfiness The Oleaster Tr. 


Leaves not scurfy  . : : 153 
Cal.tubular. Ovulependulous The Mezereum Tr. 
Calyx open and short. Ovule erect 154 
Calyx dry and coloured The Amaranth Tr. 
Calyx herbaceous The Goosefoot Tr. 
Stamensunitedinacolumn The Pitcher-plant Tr. 
Stamens distinct : : : 156 
Leaves dotted : The Yellowwood Tr. 
Leaves not dotted i The Euph. Tr. 
Ovary superior : : : 158 
Ovary inferior . ; : 194 
Flowers regular i - ; 159 
Flowers irregular. : ; 185 
Ovary lobed d : : 160 
Ovary not lobed : ; : 162 
Leaves dotted : The Rue Tr. 
Leaves dotless : : , 161 
Flower-branches coiled up before opening 


The Borage Tr. 
Flower-branches always straight The Nolana Tr. 


LHL LETTER L. 
162. Anthers opening by pores . 163 
Anthers opening by slits. : 166 
163. Carpels four or five : 164 
Carpels two : T he Nightshade Tr. 
164. Herbaceous plants The Winter-green Tr. 
Shrubs ; ; : : 165 
165. Anthers two-celled : The Heath Tr. 
Anthers one-celled : The Epacris Tr. 
166. Carpels four or five. : 167 
Carpels three : ; : 172 
Carpels two : : : 174: 
Carpels one : : : 183 
167. Stamens opposite petals, and Ge tan to them 
in number ; 168 
Stamens alternate with petal or at least 
twice their number ; 169 
168. Herbaceous plants : The Primrose Tr. 
Shrubs or trees : The Ardisia Tr. 
169. Brown parasites on roots = The Monotropa Tr. 
Leafy green plants : : 170 
170. Seeds very numerous. The Houseleek Tr. 
Seeds very few : ; : 7a 
171. Ovules erect : The Bindweed Tr. 
Ovules pendulous : The Holly Tr. 
172. Inflorescence coiled up . The Bie * Tr. 
Inflorescence straight : 173 
173. Anth. bursting longitud. Zhe Greek Valerian Tr. 


Anthers bursting transversely The Diapensia Tr. 


174. 


175. 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. 253 


Stamens two : c ‘ 173 
Stamens four or more : : 176 
/Estivation of corolla valvate The Olive Tr. 


/Estivation of corollaimbricated The Jasmine Tr. 


176. Inflorescence coiled up The Waterleaf Tr. 
Inflorescence straight : . 177 
177. Aistivation of corolla plaited ; 178 
Estivation of corolla imbricated : 180 
178. Seeds very few : The Bindweed Tr. 
Seeds very numerous 3 2 179 
179. Leaves three-ribbed : The Gentian Tr. 


Leaves one-ribbed F The Nightshade Tr. 


. Anthers adhering to a stigma-like table 


The Asclepras Tr. 
Anthers quite free : 181 


. Parasitical leafless plants The Dodder Tr. 


Green leafy terrestrial plants. : 182 


. Leaves uniformly three-ribbed The Gentian Tr. 


Leaves one-ribbed ; The Wormseed Tr. 


. Stigm. withanexternalcovering The Brunonia Tr. 
Stigma in its ordinary naked state 184 
. Style one : The Plantain Tr. 
Styles five : : The Leadwort Tr. 
. Ovary four-lobed : ; The Mint Tr. 
Ovary undivided : : : 186 
. Carpel solitary : The Madwort Tr. 
Carpels two. ; : : 187 
. Fruit nut-like ; F 188 


Fruit capsular or succulent. , 189 


LETTER L. 


. Flowers without bracts . The Myoporum Tr. 


Flowers with bracts ; The Vervain Tr. 


. Seeds winged. Woody climbers 


The Trumpet- si Le 
Seeds wingless ; : 190 


190. Brown parasites : The Broom Rape Tr. 

Green leafy plants : : ; 191 

191. Fruit two-celled : : 192 

Fruit with free centr. placenta T he Butterwort Tr. 

192. Ovary partly inferior . The Gesnera Tr. 

Ovary quite superior Z : 193 

193. Seeds without appendages . The Figwort Tr. 

Seeds with hooked appendages The Justicia Tr. 

194. Carpel solitary ‘ : : 195 

Carpels more than one : : 197 

195. Anthers grown together . Zhe Composite Tr. 

Anthers distinct : ‘ ; 196 

196. Carpel quite solitary t The Scabious Tr. 
Carpel with two additional abortive ones 

The Valerian Tr. 

197. Anthers grown together . The Lobelia Tr. 

Anthers distinct : : ; 198 

198. Anthers opening by pores . Zhe mb Tr 

Anthers opening by slits 2 199 

199. Stipules between opposite leaves The Coffee Tr. 

Stipules absent . . : 200 

200. Stigm. with an externalcovering The Goodenia Tr. 


Stigma naked : : : 201 


201. 


202. 


203. 


204. 


205. 


206. 


207. 


208. 


209. 


210. 


ARTIFICIAL TABLE. Q55 


Style and stamens united in an irritable 
column : The Stylidium Tr. 


Style and stamens distinct A ; 202 


Seeds very numerous ‘ The Harebell Tr. 
Seeds very few ‘ : : 203 


Leaves alternate P : The Ebony Tr. 
Leaves opposite ‘ : : 204, 


Leaves in pairs. Stem round The Honeysuckle Tr. 
Leaves in whorls. Stem square Zhe Madder Tr. 


Flowers incomplete; that is, not having 


distinct petals ; , 206 
Flowers complete; that is, ieee dis- 

tinct petals ‘ : ‘ 213 
Flowers glumaceous. . 3 ; 207 
Flowers not glumaceous ; ; 208 


Stems round and hollow ; The Grass Tr. 
Stems solid : : r The Sedge Tr. 


Flowers on a spadix . : . 209 
Flowers scattered : . re 211 
Fruit succulent : : The Arum Tr. 
Fruit dry ; ; : - 210 


Anthers sessile : : The Acorus Tr. 
Anthers on long weak stalks . The Bulrush Tr. 


. Floaters , : : a12 
Land plants : The “ah row-grass Tr. 
. Ovules pendulous ‘ The Naiad Tr. 


Ovules erect ; p The Duchweed Tr. 


LETTER L. 


213. Stamens and styles united in a central 
column , P The Orchis Tr. 
Stamens and styles separate. ‘ 214 
214. Ovary inferior : : , Q15 
Ovary superior . : : 219 
215. Veins of leaves diverging from midrib 216 
Veins of leaves parallel with midrib. Q17 
216. Anther two-celled : The Ginger Tr. 
Anther one-celled The Arrow Root Tr. 
217. Stamens three - The Cornflag Tr. 
Stamens six d E ; 218 
Stamens more than six . The Frogbit Tr. 
218. Sepals thin and coloured The Narcissus Tr. 
Sepals herbaceous : The Pine-Apple T’. 
219. Carpels quite separate : : 220 
Carpels quite united } 221 


220. 


224. 


Fruits many-seeded The Flowering Rush Tr. 
Fruits one-seeded The Water-Plantain Tr. 


. Sepalsherbaceous; petalscoloured Spiderwort Tr. 


Sepals and petals both alike : 222 


. Flowers brown and glumaceous The Rush Tr. 


Flowers coloured , : 293 


. Anthers turned outwards The Colchicum Tr. 


Anthers turned inwards : , Q24, 


Petalsrolledinwardsafter flowering Pontedera Tr. 
Petals shrivelling irregularly after flowering 


The Lily Tr. 


. Stems jointed : 4 ; 205% 


Stems not jointed : : 226 


ARTIFICIAL METHOD. ps i 


295* Fructification in cones The Horsetail Tr. 


226. 


227. 


228. 


230. 


231. 


wo 
OS 
ws) 


Fructification axillary and solitary The Chara Tr. 


Plants with distinct leaves 5 997 
Plants mere leafless expansions s 230 
Fructification growing on the back of the 
leaves : The Fern Tr. 
Fructification distinct from the leaves 228 


Seed-vessel sessile in the axils of leaves 
The Club-moss Tr. 
Seed-vessel on stalks ; : 299 


. Seed-vessel with a lid and calyptra The Moss Tr. 


Seed-vessel without lid and calyptra 
The Jungermannia Tr. 


Seed-vessel opening into valves Jungermannia Tr. 
Seed-vessel without valves : 231 
Seed-vessel stalked and external Marchantia Tr. 
Seed-vessel stalkless and usually internal 232 


. Growing under water The Sea-weed Tr. 


Growing in the air : 233 


. Fructification in external shields The Lichen Tr. 


Fructification in internalcases The Mushroom Tr. 


VOL. Il. Ss 


APPEN DIX. 


An Alphabetical List of the commoner kinds of Plants, with the 


Natural Orders to which they severally belong. 


ABELE Tree 
Abies 
Abrotanum 
Abrus 
Absinthium 
Abutilon 
Acacia 
Acanthus 
Acer 

Aceras 
Achillea 
Achyranthes 
Aconitum 
Acorus 
Acrostichum 
Actzea 
Acynos 


Adam’s Needle 
Adder’s tongue 


Adenandra 
Adenophora 
Adhatoda 


Tribe or 


Natural Order. 


Willow 
Fir 
Composite 
Pea 
Composite 
Mallow 
Pea 
Justicia 
Maple 
Orchis 
Composite 
Amaranth 
Crowfoot 
Acorus 
Fern 
Crowfoot 
Mint 

Lily 

Fern 

: Rue 
Harebell 
Justicia 


Adiantum 
Adlumia 
Adonis 
Adoxa 
ZEgilops 
Egopodium 
Aerides 
/Esculus 
Ethionema 
/Ethusa 


African marigold 


Agapanthus 
Agave 
Ageratum 
Agrimonia 
Agrostemma 
Air plant 
Ajuga 
Alaternus 
Albuca 
Alcea 
Alchemilla 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Fern 
Fumitory 
Crowfoot 

Aralia 

; Grass 
Umbelliferous 
Orchis 
Horsechesnut 
Cruciferous 
Umbelliferous 
Composite 
Lily 
Narcissus 
Composite 
Rose 

Lychnis 
Orchis 

Mint 
Buckthorn 
Asphodel 
Mallow 


Burnet 


Alder 
Aletris 
Alexanders 


Alexandrian laurel 


Alisma 
Alligator pear 
Allium 
Allspice tree 
Alnus 

Aloe 

Alonsoa 
Alopecurus 
Aloysia 
Alpinia 
Alsine 
Alstreemeria 
Althea 
Alyssum 
Amaryllis . 
Amelanchier 
American aloe 
American cowslip 
Ammobium 
Amomum 
Amorpha 

. Ampelopsis 
Amsonia 
Amygdalus 
Anagallis 
Anagyris 
Ananassa 
Anchusa 
Andersonia 
Andromeda : 


Andropogon 


Pine Apple 


APPENDIX. 


Tribe or 


Natural Order. 


Birch 
Asphodel 


Umbelliferous 


Asphodel 


Water Plantain 


Cinnamon 
Asphodel 
Myrtle 
Birch 
Asphodel 
Foxglove 
Grass 
Vervain 
Ginger 
Chickweed 
Narcissus 
Mallow 
Cruciferous 
Narcissus 

. Apple 
Narcissus 
Primrose 
Composite 
Ginger 
Pea 

Vine 
Asclepias 
Almond 
Primrose 


Pea 


Borage 
Epacris 
Heath 
Grass 


5 


Androsemum 
Anemone 
Anethum 
Angelica 
Angelonia 
Angreecum 
Anomatheca 
Anthemis 
Anthericum 
Antholyza 
Anthriscus 
Anthyllis 
Antirrhinum 
Aotus 
Aphelandra 
Apios 
Apium 
Aponogeton 
Apricot 
Aquilegia 
Arabis 
Arachis 
Araucaria 
Arbor Vite 
Arbutus 
Archangel 
Archangelica 
Arctium 
Arctotis 
Ardisia 
Areca 
Arenaria 
Aretia 
Argemone 
Aristolochia 
2) 


Tribe or 
Natura] Order. 
Apocynum 
Crowfoot 
Umbelliferous 
ditto 
Foxglove 
Orchis 
Cornflag 
Composite 
Asphodel 
Cornflag 
Umbelliferous 
: Pea 
. Foxglove 
Pea 
Justicia 
: Pea 
Unmnbelliferous 
Saururus 
Almond 
Crowfoot 


Cruciferous 


do. 

Heath 

Umbelliferous 
ditto 

Composite 
ditto 

Myrsine 

J Palm 

Chickweed 

Primrose 


Poppy 
Birthwort 


200 


Armeria 
Artemisia 
Arthropodium 
Artichoke 
Artocarpus 
Arundo 
Asarum 
Asparagus 
Asperula 
Aspidium 
Asplenium 
Aster 
Astragalus 
Astrantia 
Astrapea 
Astroloma 
Athamanta 
Atragene 
Atriplex 
Atropa 
Aubrietia 
Aucuba 
Auricula 
Azalea 
Azarolus 
Babiana 
Baccharis 
Ballota 
Balm 


Balm of Gilead 


Bamboo 
Banksia 
Baptisia 
Barbarea 


Barleria 


APPENDIX. 

Tribe or Tribe or 
Natural Order. Natural Order. 
Thrift Barley _ Grass 
Composite Barringtonia Myrtle 
Asphodel Bartonia Loasa 
Composite Bartsia Foxglove 
Nettle Baryosma Rue 
Grass Basil Mint 
Birthwort Batatas Bindweed 
Asphodel Batschia Borage 
Madder Bauhinia Pea 
Fern Bay tree Cinnamon 
do. Bean : Pea 
Composite Beaufortia Myrtle 
ti Pea Beaumontia Apocynum 
Umbelliferous Beccabunga Foxglove 
Mallow Beckmannia Grass 
Epacris Beech Oak 
Umbelliferous Beet : Goosefoot 
Crowfoot Belladonna Lily Narcissus 
Goosefoot Bellis Composite 
Nightshade Bellium ditto 
Cruciferous Berberis Barberry 
Dogwood Beta Goosefoot 
Primrose Betonica Mint 
Heath Betula Birch 
Apple Bidens Composite 
Cornflag Bignonia Trumpet Flower 
Composite Billardiera Pittosporum 
Mint Billbergia Pine Apple 
do. Bird-cherry Almond 
do. Bird-pepper Nightshade 
Grass Bird’s-foot Trefoil Pea 
Protea Biscutella Cruciferous 
Pea Biserrula Pea 
Cruciferous Bitter-sweet Nightshade 
Justicia Bladder Ketmia Mallow 


Bladder Senna 
Blechnum 
Bletia 
Blitum 
Blue-bottle 
Blumenbachia 
Bocconia 
Behmeria 
Boltonia 
Bombax 
Bonapartea 
Bonus Henricus 
Boronia 
Botrychium 
Bouvardia 
Box Tree 
Brachysema 
Brachystelma 
Brake 
Bramble 
Brasavola 
Brassia 
Brassica 
Broccoli 
Brodixa 
Bromelia 
Bromus 
Brook-lime 
Broom 
Broughtonia 
Broussonetia 
Browallia 
Brownea 
Brugmansia 


Brunstelsia 


APPENDIX. 
Tribe or 
Natural Order. 
Pea Brunsvigia 
Fern Bryonia 
Orchis Bryophyllum 
Goosefoot Buddlea 
Composite Bugle 
Loasa Bugloss 
Poppy Bulbocodium 
Nettle Bullace tree 
Composite Bupthalmum 
Mallow Bupleurum 
Pine Apple Burdock 
Goosefoot Bur Reed ‘ 
Rue Butcher’s Broom 
Fern Butomus 
Coffee Butterfly plant 
Spurge Butterwort 
: Pea Buxus 
Asclepias Cabbage 
Fern Cacalia 
Rose Ceesalpinia 
Orchis Caladium 
ditto Calamintha 
Cruciferous Calandrinia 
ditto Calanthe 
Asphodel Calathea 
Pine Apple Calceolaria 
Grass Calendula 
Foxglove Callicarpa 
Pea Calliopsis 
Orchis Callistachys 
Nettle Callistemon 
Foxglove Calluna 
J Pea Calochortus 
Nightshade Calostemma 
ditto Calothamnus 


261 

Tribe or 
Natural Order. 
Narcissus 
Gourd 
Houseleek 
Foxglove 
Mint 
Borage 
Colchicum 
Almond 
Composite 
Umbelliferous 
Composite 
Bulrush 
Asphodel 


Flowering Rush 


Asclepias 
Crowfoot 
Spurge 
Cruciferous 
Composite 
Pea 

Arum 

Mint 
Purslane 
Orchis 
Arrow root 
Foxglove 
Composite 
Vervain 
Composite 
: Pea 
Myrtle 
Heath 

Lily 
Narcissus 


Myrtle 


Calotropis 
Caltha 
Calycanthus 
Calystegia 
Camaridium 
Camellia 
Cammarum 
Campanula 
Canarina 
Canavalia 
Candollea 
Candytuft 
Canna 


Cannabis 


Canterbury Bells 


Capparis 
Capraria 
Caprifolium 
Capsella 
Capsicum 
Caragana 
Caralluma 
Caraway 
Cardamine 
Cardoon 
Carduus 
Carex 
Carnation 
Carob tree 
Carrot 
Carthamus 
Caryophyllus 
Cassia 
Castanea 
Castilleja 


APPENDIX. 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Asclepias 
Crowfoot 


Carolina Allspice 


Bindweed 
Orchis 
Tea 
Crowfoot 
Harebell 
ditto 
: Pea 
Dillenia 
Cruciferous 
Arrow-root 
Nettle 
Harebell 
Caper 
Foxglove 
Honeysuckle 
Cruciferous 
Nightshade 
E Pea 
Asclepias 
Umbelliferous 
Cruciferous 
Composite 
ditto 
Sedge 
Lychnis 
f Pea 
Umbelliferous 
Composite 
Myrtle 
Pea 
Oak 
Foxglove 


Caster-oil plant 
Catananche . 
Catchfly a 
Catmint 

Cat Thyme 
Cattleya 
Caucalis 
Cauliflower 
Ceanothus 


Cedar of Lebanon 


Cedar 
Celandine 
Celery 
Celosia 
Centaurea 
Centaurium 
Cephalanthus 
Cerastium 
Cerasus 
Ceratonia 
Cerbera 
Cercis 
Cereus 
Cerinthe 
Ceropegia 
Ceterach 


Cheerophyllum . 


Chamomile 
Charlock 
Cheiranthus 
Chelidonium 
Chelone 
Chenopodium 
Cherimoyer 
Cherry 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Spurge 
Composite 
Lychnis 
Mint 
ditto 
Orchis 
Umbelliferous 
Cruciferous 
Buckthorn 
Fir 
ditto 
Poppy 
Umbelliferous 
Amaranth 
Composite 
Gentian 
Coffee 
Chickweed 
Almond 
: Pea 
Apocynum 
Pea 
Cactus 
Borage 
Asclepias 
Fern 
Umbelliferous 
Composite 
Cruciferous 
ditto 
Poppy 
Foxglove 
Goosefoot 
Anona 


Almond 


APPENDIX. 
Tribe or 
Natural Order. 
Chervil Umbelliferous Clitoria 
Chimaphila Winter-green Clover 
Chimonanthus Carolina Allspice Cobea 
China Aster Composite Coburghia 
Chionanthus Olive Coccoloba 
Chironia Gentian Cochineal Fig 
Chives Asphodel Cochlearia 
Chlora Gentian Cock’s-comb 
Chorizema Pea Cocos 
Christmas Rose . Crowfoot Colletia 
Christ’s Thorn Buckthorn Collinsia 
Chrysanthemum Composite Collinsonia 
Chrysosplenium Saxifrage Collomia 
Cicer Pea Colutea 
Cichorium Composite Comarum 
Cicuta Umbelliferous Commelina 
Cimicifuga Crowfoot Comptonia 
Cineraria Composite Conferva 
Circzea, Enchanter’s Nightshade Conium 
Cissus : Vine Convallaria 
Cistus Rock Rose Convolvulus 
Citron Orange Coptis 
Citrus ditto Corallorrhiza 
Cladanthus Composite Corchorus 
Clarkia Evening Primrose Coriander 
Clary Mint Cork tree 
Claytonia Purslane Corn-cockle 
Clematis Crowfoot Cornus 
Cleome Caper Coronilla 
Clerodendrum Vervain Coronopus 
Clethra Heath Correa 
Clianthus Pea Cortusa 
Cliffortia Burnet Corydalis 
Clinopodium Mint Corylus 
Clintonia Lobelia Costmary 


263 


Tribe or 
Natural Order, 


Pea 

ditto 

Greek Valerian 
Narcissus 
Buckwheat 
Cactus 
Cruciferous 
Amaranth 
Palm 
Buckthorn 
Foxglove 
Mint 

Greek Valerian 
Pea 

Rose 
Spiderwort 
Gale 

Sea weed 
Umbelliferous 
Asphodel 
Bindweed 
Crowfoot 
Orchis 
Linden 
Umbelliferous 
: Oak 
Lychnis 
Dogwood 
Pea 
Cruciferous 
Rue 

Primrose 
Fumitory 
Oak 
Composite 


264. 


Cotoneaster 
Cotula 
Cotyledon 
Cow Parsley 
Cowslip 
Crambe 
Crassula 
Crategus 
Crinum 
Crithmum 
Crocus 
Crotalaria 
Croton 
Crowea 
Cucubalus 
Cucumber 
Cucumis 


Cucurbita 


Cunninghamia 


Cuphea 
Cupressus 
Curcuma 
Currant 
Cuscuta 
Cyclamen 
Cydonia 
Cymbidium 
Cynanchum 
Cynara 
Cynoglossum 
Cynosurus 
Cyperus 
Cypripedium 
Cyrtanthus 
Cyrtopodium 


APPENDIX. 

Tribe or Tribe or 
Natural Order. Natural Order. 
Apple Cytisus Pea 
Composite Daffodil Narcissus 
Houseleek Dahlia Composite 
Umbelliferous Daisy ditto 
Primrose Dalbergia Pea 
Cruciferous Dalibarda Rose 
Houseleek Damasonium Water Plantain 
Apple Dammar Fir 
Narcissus Dandelion Composite 
Umbelliferous Daphne Mezereum 
Cornflag Darwinia 4 Pea 
Pea Datura Nightshade 
Spurge Daucus Umbelliferous 
Rue Dayallia Fern 
Lychnis Daviesia : iia 
Gourd Deadly Nightshade Nightshade 
: ditto Dead Nettle Mint 
ditto Delphinium Crowfoot 
Seer Dendrobium Orchis 
Lythrum Dens Canis Lily 
: Fir Dentaria Cruciferous 
: Ginger Desmodium . soBea 
Gooseberry Dianthus. Lychnis 
Dodder Dictamnus : Rue 
Primrose Diervilla Honeysuckle 
Apple Digitalis Foxglove 
Orchis Dillwynia F Pea 
Asclepias Dioscorea Yam 
Composite Diosma Rue 
Borage Dipsacus Scabious 
Grass Disa Orchis 
Sedge Disandra . Foxglove 
Orchis Dodecatheon Primrose 
Narcissus Dolichos Pea 
Orchis Doronicum Composite 


Doryanthes 
Dorycnium 
Draba 
Dracena 
Dracocephalum 
Dracontium 
Drimia 
Drosera 
Dryandra 
Dryas 


Duranta 


APPENDIX. 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 
Narcissus 
Pea 
Cruciferous 
Asphodel 
Mint 
Arum 
Asphodel 
Sundew 
Protea 
Rose 


Vervain 


Eccremocarpus Trumpet Flower 


Echeveria Houseleek 
Echinocactus Cactus 
Echinops Composite 
Echites Apocynum 
Echium Borage 
Edwardsia 3 Pea 
Eleagnus Oleaster 
Elichrysum Composite 
Elsholtzia Poppy 
Empetrum Crowberry 
Endive Composite 
English Mercury Euphorbia 
Epidendrum Orchis 
Epigza Heath 
Epilobium Evening Primrose 
Epimedium Berberry 
Epiphyllum Cactus 
Equisetum Horsetail 
Eranthemum Justicia 
Eria Orchis 
Erica Heath 
Eriobotrya Apple 
Eriophorum Sedge 


Eriostemon 
Erodium 
Eruca 
Ervum 
Eryngium 
Erysimum 
Erythraa 
Erythrina 
Erythronium 
Eschscholtzia 
Esculus 
Eucalyptus 
Eucomis 
Eugenia 
Eulophia 
Euonymus 
Eupatorium 
Euphrasia 
Eutoca 
Fagus 
Farsetia 
Feather Grass 
Fennel 
Ferraria 
Ferula 
Feverfew 
Ficaria 
Ficus 

Fig Tree 
Filbert 
Fontanesia 
Fool's Parsley 
Fragaria 


Fraxinus 


French Marigold 


265 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Rue 
Geranium 
Cruciferous 

‘ ; Pea 
Umbelliferous 
Cruciferous 
Gentian 

Pea 

Lily 

Poppy 
Horsechesnut 
Myrtle 
Asphodel 
Myrtle 

Orchis 
Celastrus 

. Composite 
Foxglove 
Waterleaf 
Oak 
Cruciferous 

; Grass 
Umbelliferous 
Cornflag 
Umbelliferous 
Composite 
Crowfoot 
Nettle 

ditto 

Oak 

Olive 
Umbelliferous 
Rose 

Olive 


Com posite 


266 


APPENDIX. 


Tribe or 


Natural Order. 


Fritillary Lily Goat’s Beard 
Fuchsia Evening Primrose Golden Rod 
Fucus Sea-weed Golden Saxifrage 
Fumaria Fumitory Gomphrena 
Furze Pea Gongora 
Gagea r : Lily Goodia 
Galanthus Narcissus Gordonia 
Galardia Composite Gorteria 
Galega Pea Gossypium 
Galeobdolon Mint Grape 
Galeopsis ditto Grape Hyacinth 
Galium Madder Gratiola 
Gardenia Coffee Grevillea 
Gardoquia Mint Grewia 
Gaultheria Heath Griffinia 
Gaura Evening Primrose Grindelia 
Genista ai es, Grislea 
Gerardia Foxglove Ground Ivy 
Germander Mint Groundsel 
Gethyllis Narcissus Guava 

Geum : ; Rose Guelder Rose 
Gilia Greek Valerian Guernsey Lily 
Gillyflower Cruciferous Guilandina 
Gladiolus Cornflag Gum Cistus 
Glaucium Poppy Gymnocladus 
Glaux Primrose Gypsophila 
Glechoma Mint Habenaria 
Gleditschia Pea Habranthus 
Globe Amaranth Amaranth Hemanthus 
Globe Thistle . Composite Hakea 
Gloxinia Gesnera Halesia 
Glycine Pea Halimodendron 
Glycyrrhiza ditto | Hamamelis 
Gnaphalium Composite | Hawkweed 
Gnidia Mezereum Hawthorn 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Composite 
ditto 
Saxifrage 
Amaranth 
Orchis 
Pea 
Tea 
Composite 
Mallow 
Vine 
Asphodel 
Foxglove 
Protea 
Linden 
Narcissus 
Composite 
Lythrum 
Mint 
Composite 
Myrtle 
Honeysuckle 
Narcissus 


Pea 


Rock Rose 


s Pea 
Chickweed 
Orchis 
Narcissus 
ditto 
Protea 
Styrax 
; Pea 
Witch Hazel 
Composite 
Apple 


APPENDIX. 
‘Tribe or 
Natural Order. 
Hazel Oak Horchound 
Heart’s Ease Violet Hornbeam 
Hedera Aralia Horned Poppy 
Hedge Hyssop Mint Horseradish 
Hedge Mustard . Cruciferous Hosackia 
Hedychium Ginger Hottonia 
Heédysarum Pea Houseleek 
Helenium Composite Houstonia 
Helianthemum Rock Rose Hovea 
Helianthus Composite Hovenia 
Helichrysum ditto Hoya 
Heliotropium Borage Humea 
Hellebore Crowfoot Humulus 
Helonias Colchicum Hutchinsia 
Hemerocallis : Lily Hyacinthus 
Hemimeris Foxglove Hydrocotyle 
Hemlock Umbelliferous Hydrophyllum 
Hemlock Spruce Fir Hyoscyamus 
Hemp Nettle Hypecoum 
Henbane Nightshade Hypericum 
Hepatica Crowfoot Hypnum 
Heracleum Umbelliferous Hypocheeris 
Hermannia Mallow Hypoxis 
Hesperis Cruciferous Hyssop 
Heuchera Saxifrage Iberis 
Hibbertia Dillenia Ilex 
Hibiscus Mallow Illecebrum 
Hieracium Composite Impatiens 
Hippocrepis Pea Imperatoria 
Hippophae Oleaster Indian Fig 
Hippuris Evening Primrose Indian Corn 
Holly Holly | Indian Sshot 
Hollyhock Mallow | Indigofera 
Honesty Cruciferous | Inga 
Hop Nettle Inula 


267 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Mint 

. Oak 

- Poppy 
Cruciferous 
Pea 
Primrose 
Stonecrop 
Coftee 

= Pea 
Buckthorn 
Asclepias 
Composite 
Nettle 
Cruciferous 
Asphodel 
Umbelliferous 
Waterleaf. 
Nightshade 
Poppy 

. Tutsan 
Moss 
Composite 
Narcissus 
Mint 
Cruciferous 
Holly 
Knotgrass 
Balsam 
Umbelliferous 
Cactus 
Grass 
Arrow Root 
Pea 

ditto 
Composite 


208 APPENDIX. 
Tribe or Tribe or 

Natural Order. Natural Order. 
Ipomeea Bindweed Ladanum Rock Rose 
Ipomopsis Greek Valerian Ladies’ Slipper Orchis 
Tris Cornflag Lagerstreemia Lythrum 
Isatis Cruciferous Lambertia Protea 
Isopogon Protea Lamb’s Lettuce Valerian 
Itea Heath Lamium Mint 
Iva Composite Lantana Vervain 
Ivy Aralia Lapeyrousia Asphodel 
Ixia Cornflag Lapsana Composite 
Ixora Coffee Larix Tris 
Jacaranda Trumpet Flower Larkspur Crowfoot 
Jacobea Lily Narcissus Larochea Stonecrop 
Jambosa Myrtle Laserpitium Umbelliferous 
Jasione Lobelia Lasiopetalum Sterculia 
Jatropha Spurge Lathyrus ies 
Jerusalem Artichoke . Composite Laurestinus Honeysuckle 
Jonquil Narcissus Laurus Cinnamon 
Judas Tree : Pea Lavandula Mint 
Juglans Walnut Lavatera Mallow 
Jujube Buckthorn Lavender Mint 
Julibrissin Pea Leschenaultia Goodenia 
Juniper Fir Ledum Heath 
Keempferia Ginger Lemon Orange 
Kalmia Heath Leontice Barberry 
Kaulfussia Composite Leontodon Composite 
Kennedia Pea Leonurus Mint 
Kerria Rose Lepidium Cruciferous 
Kidney-bean sa ees Leptosiphon . Greek Valerian 
Kitaibelia Mallow Limnocharis . Flowering Rush 
Knautia Scabious Linaria Foxglove 
Kolreuteria Soapberry Linnea Honeysuckle 
Laburnum ‘ Pea Linum Flax 
Lachenalia Asphodel Liparia Pea 
Lachnza Mezereum Liparis Orchis 
Lactuca Composite Liriodendron Magnolia 


APPENDIX. 269 


Tribe or 

Natural Order. 
Lithospermum Borage 
Littorella Ribgrass 
Loddigesia Pea 
Lomaria Fern 
Lomatia Protea 
London Pride _Saxifrage 
Lonicera Honeysuckle 
Lopezia Evening Primrose 
Loquat A pple 
Lotus Pea 
Lousewort Foxglove 
Lovage Umbelliferous 
Love Apple Nightshade 
Love-lies-bleeding . Amaranth 
Lucern oes 
Lungwort Borage 
Lupine . Rea 
Lycium Nighishade 
Lycopodium Clubmoss 
Lycopsis Borage 
Lycopus Mint 
Lysimachia Primrose 
Macleaya Poppy 
Mahernia Mallow 
Mahonia Barberry 
Malcomia Cruciferous 
Malope Mallow 
Malva ditto 
Malvaviscus ditto 
Mammillaria Cactus 
Mandrake Nightshade 
Manettia Coffee 
Maranta Arrow-root 
Marica Cornflag 
Marigold Composite 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Marjoram ‘ : Mint 
Marrubium : ditto 
Marsh Mallow Mallow 
Maurandya Foxglove 
Maxillaria : Orchis 
Mays A A Grass 
Medicago é Pea 
Medlar ‘ : Apple 
Melaleuca : Myrtle 
Melhania : Mallow 
Melianthus - Rue 
Melilotus ; Pea 
Melissa : Mint 
Melittis ; : ditto 
Melon 2 ; Gourd 
Melon Thistle Cactus 
Mentha : : Mint 
Menyanthes Gentian 
Menziesia : Heath 
Mercurialis : Spurge 
Mesembryanthemum Fig Marig. 
Mespilus : . Apple 
Meum F Umbelliferous 
Milfoil - Composite 
Mimosa : die(BPea 
Mimulus Foxglove 
Mirabilis Marvel of Peru 
Mitella Saxifrage 
Momordica. - Gourd 
Monanthes Stonecrop 
Monarda : - Mint 
Morwa Cornflag 
Moricandia Cruciferous 
Morus : , Nettle 


Mountain Ash Z Apple 


870 APPENDIX. 


Tribe or 

Natural Order. 
Mucuna : a Ledeen 
Murraya Orange 
Murucuia Passion Flower 
Musa : s Plantain 
Muscari Asphodel 
Mustard Cruciferous 
Myosotis Borage 


Myrica ; . Gale 
Myriophyllum . Evening Primrose 


Myristica Nutmeg 
Myrrhis Umbelliferous 
Narthecium : Rush 
Nasturtium Cruciferous 
Navelwort Borage 
Nectarine Almond 
Negundium ; Maple 
Nemophila Waterleaf 
Neottia P : Orchis 
Nepeta : : Mint 
Nerine z . Narcissus 
Nerium Apocynum 
N. Zealand Spinach . Tetragonia 
Nicotiana Nightshade 
Nigella Crowfoot 
Nolana Nolana 
Nolitangere Balsam 
Nonea : E Borage 
Norfolk Island Pine aiigeiRir 
Norway Spruce : Fir 
Nuphar Water Lily 
Nux-vomica Apocynum 
Nycterium Nightshade 
Nymphza Water Lily 
Ocymum ; : Mint 
(Enanthe Umbelliferous 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


(Enothera . Evening Primrose 


Olea ; ; : Olive 
Oleander Apocynum 
Oncidium : Orchis 
Onion é .  Asphodel 
Onobrychis : , Pea 
Ononis. ; -ndlatio 
Onopordum Composite 
Onosma Borage 
Ophioglossum : Fern 


Ophrys : L Orchis 
Opuntia : ‘ Cactus 
Orach : : Goosefoot 
Origanum : : Mint 


Ornithogalum Asphodel 
Ornithopus My : Pea 
Omus : : Olive 
Orobus , n Pea 
Orontium : Arum 
Osbeckia Melastoma 
Osier 4 . Willow 
Osmunda : Joye 


Ostrya te Z Oak 


Othonna Composite 
Oxalis : Woodsorrel 
Oxycoccus Bilberry 
Oxylobium : Pea 
Pachysandra Spurge 
Peonia Crowfoot 
Paliurus Buckthorn 
Palma Christi Spurge 
Panax Aralia 
Pancratium Narcissus 


Papaver p Poppy 


Pardanthus 


Cornflag 


Parietaria 
Paris 
Parkinsonia 
Parnassia 
Paronychia 
Parsley 
Parsnep 
Passerina 
Pastinaca 
Patersonia 
Patrinia 
Pavetta 
Pavonia : 
Peach 

Pear 
Pedicularis 
Pelargonium 
Peltaria 
Pennyroyal 
Pentapetes 
Penthorum 
Pentstemon 
Peperomia 
Peppermint 
Pereskia 
Pergularia 
Periploca 
Periwinkle 
Persoonia 
Petunia 
Phaca 
Phacelia 
Phalangium 
Pharnaceum 
Phaseolus 


APPENDIX. 
Tribe or 
Natural Order. 
Nettle Pheasant’s Eye 
Colchicum Phillyrea 
Pea Phleum 
Saxifrage Phlomis 
Knotgrass Phlox 
Umbelliferous Phormium 
ditto Photinia 
Mezereum Phycella 
Umbelliferous Phylica 
Cornflag Phyllanthus 
Valerian Physalis 
Coffee Pimelea 
Mallow Pimenta 
Almond Pimpernel 
Apple Pimpinella 
Foxglove Pinaster 
Geranium Pinckneya 
Cruciferous Pine 
Mint Pink 
Mallow Pinus 
Stonecrop Pitcairnia 
Foxglove Planera 
Pepper Plantago 
Mint Platanus 
Cactus Plumbago 
Asclepias Plumieria 
ditto Podalyria 
Apocynum Podophyllum 
Protea Poinciana 
Nightshade Polemonium 
. Pea Polyanthes 
Waterleaf Polyanthus 
Asphodel Polygala 
Chickweed Polygonum 
Pea Polypodium 


a7 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Crowfoot 
Olive 

Grass 

Mint 

Greek Valerian 
Lily 

Apple 
Narcissus 
Buckthorn 
Spurge 
Nightshade 
Mezereum 
Myrtle 
Primrose 
Umbelliferous 
Fir 

Coffee 

F Fir 
Lychnis 

- Fir 
Pine Apple 
Elm 
Ribgrass 
Plane 
Leadwort 
Apocynum 
Pea 

Poppy 

Pea 

Greek Valerian 
Lily 
Primrose 
Milkwort 
Buckwheat 


Fern 


279 


Pomaderris 
Pomegranate 
Poplar 
Populus 
Portugal Laurel 
Portulaca 
Potato 
Potentilla 
Poterium 
Pothos 

Pot Marigold 
Prince’s. Feather 
Prinos 

Privet 
Prunella 
Prunus 
Psidium 
Psoralea 
Pteris 
Pulmonaria 
Pulsatilla 
Pultenza 
Pumpkin 
Punica 
Puschkinia 
Pyracantha 
Pyrola 

Pyrus 
Quercus 
Quince 
Quisqualis 
Radiola 
Radish 
Ragged Robin 


Ragwort 


APPENDIX. 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Buckthorn 
Myrtle 
Willow 
ditto 
Almond 
Purslane 
Nightshade 
Rose 
Burnet 
Arum 
Composite 
Amaranth 
Celastrus 
Olive 

Mint 
Almond 
Myrtle 

Pea 

Fern 
Borage 
Crowfoot 
Pea 

Gourd 
Myrtle 
Asphodel 
Apple 
Wintergreen 
Apple 

Oak 

Apple 
Combretum 
Flax 
Cruciferous 
Lychnis 


Composite 


Rampion 
Ranunculus 
Rape 
Raphanus 
Raphiolepis 
Rapistrum 
Raspberry 
Red Cedar 
Renanthera 
Renealmia 
Reseda 
Restharrow 
Rhamnus 
Rheum 
Rhexia 
Rhinanthus 
Rhipsalis 
Rhodiola 


Rhododendron 


Rhodora 
Rhubarb 
Rhus 
Ribes 
Ricinus 
Robinia 


Rose Acacia 


Rose Campion 


Rosemary 
Rosmarinus 
Rubia 
Rubus 
Rudbeckia 
Rumex 
Ruscus 


Russelia 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Harebell 
Crowfoot 
Cruciferous 
ditto 
Apple 
Cruciferous 
Rose 
: Fir 
Orchis 
Ginger 
Mignonette 


Pea 


Buckthorn 


Buckwheat 
Melastoma 
Foxglove 
Cactus 
Stonecrop 
Heath 
ditto 
Buckwheat 
Cashew 
Gooseberry 
Spurge 
Pea 

ditto 
Lychnis 
Mint 

ditto 
Madder 
Rose 
Composite 
Buckwheat 
Asphodel 


Foxglove 


Ruta 
Saccharum 
Saffron 
Sage 
Sagina 
Sagittaria 


Saintfoin 


St. John’s Bread 
St. John’s Wort 


Salicornia 
Salisburia 
Salix 
Salpiglossis 
Salsafy 
Salsola 
Salvia 
Sambucus 
Samolus 
Samphire 
Sanguinaria 
Sanguisorba 
Sanicula 
Sanseviera 
Santolina 
Saponaria 
Satureja 
Satyrium 
Savin 
Savory 
Scandix 
Schizanthus 
Schizopetalon 
Schenus 
Scilla 
Scleranthus 


VOL. II. 


APPENDIX. 
Tribe or { 
Natural Order. 
Rue Scolopendrium 
Grass Scolymus 
Cornflag Scoparia 
Mint Scorpiurus 
Chickweed Scorzonera 
Water Plantain Scrophularia 
Pea Scurvy Grass 
ditto Scutellaria 
Tutsan Sea Buckthorn 
Goosefoot Sea Kale 
Fir Sedum 
Willow Sempervivum 
Foxglove Senecio 
Composite Sensitive Plant 
Goosefoot Service 
Mint | Sesleria 
Honeysuckle Shaddock 
Primrose | Shallot 
Umbelliferous |  Shepherdia 
Poppy Sibbaldia 
Burnet | Siberian Crab 
Umbelliferous | Sibthorpia 
Asphodel |  Sicyos 
Composite | Sida 
Lychnis | Sideritis 
Mint Sieversia 
Orchis Silene 
Fir Silphium 
Mint | Sinapis 
Umbelliferous | Sisymbrium 
Foxglove | Sisyrinchium 
Cruciferous | Sium 
Sedge | Smilacina 
Asphodel | Smyrnium 
Knawel | Snapdragon 


273 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Fern 
Composite 
Foxglove 
Pea 
Composite 
Foxglove 
Cruciferous 
Mint 
Oleaster 
Cruciferous 
Stonecrop 

ditto 
Composite 
Pea 
Apple 
Grass 
Orange 
Asphodel 
Oleaster 
Rose 
Apple 
Foxglove 
Gourd 
Mallow 
Mint 
Rose 
Lychnis 
Composite 
Cruciferous 

ditto 
Cornflag 
Umbelliferous 
Asphodel 
Umbelliferous 
Foxglove 

jh 


Q74 


Snowball Tree 
Snowberry 
Snowdrop 
Snowdrop Tree 
Solanum 
Soldanella 
Solidago 
Sonchus 
Sophora 
Sorrel 
Southernwood 
Sowthistle 
Sparaxis 
Sparganium 
Sparrmannia 
Spartium 
Spergula 
Sphacele 
Spinach 
Spindle tree 
Spireea 
Sprengelia 
Spurge Laurel 


Squill 


Squirting Cucumber 


Stachys 
Stachytarpheta 
Stanhopea 
Stapelia 
Staphylea 

Star of Bethlehem 
Star of the Earth 
Statice 

Stellaria 


Sternbergia 


APPENDIX. 


Tribe or 


Natural Order. 


Honeysuckle 
ditto 
Narcissus 
Styrax 
Nightshade 
Primrose 
Composite 
ditto 
: Pea 
Buckwheat 
Composite 
ditto 
Cornflag 
Bulrush 
Linden 
‘ Pea 
Chickweed 
Mint 
Goosefoot 
Celastrus 
Rose 
Epacris 
Mezereum 
Asphodel 
Gourd 
Mint 
Vervain 
Orchis 
Asclepias 
Bladder-nut 
Asphodel 
Cruciferous 
Leadwort 
Chickweed 


Narcissus 


Stevia 
Stipa 
Stock 
Stork’s Bill 


Stramonium 


Strawberry 


Strawberry Blite 
Strawberry Tree 


Strelitzia 
Struthiola 
Stuartia 
Styphelia 
Subularia 
Succory 
Sugar Cane 


Sunflower 


Sutherlandia 


Swainsona 
Sweet Bay 
Sweet Briar 
Sweet Flag 
Sweet Gale 


Sweet Marjoram 


Sweet Pea 


Sweet Sultan 
Sweet William 


Sycamore 
Symphoria 
Symphytum 
Syringa 
Tacsonia 
Tagetes 
Talinum 
Tamarindus 


Tamarix 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Composite 
Grass 
Cruciferous 
Geranium 
Nightshade 
Rose 
Goosefoot 
Heath 
Plantain 
Mezereum 
Tea 
Epacris 
Cruciferous 
Composite 
Grass 
Composite 
Pea 

ditto 
Cinnamon 
Rose 
Acorus 
Gale 

Mint 

Pea 
Composite 
Lychnis 
Maple 
Honeysuckle 
Borage 
Olive 
Passion-flower 
Composite 
Purslane 
Pea 


Tamarisk 


Tamus 
Tanacetum 
Tare 
Taxodium 
Taxus 

Teak Wood 
Teasel 

Tea Tree 
Tecoma 
Tectona 
Telephium 
Tellima 
Telopea 
Templetonia 
Terminalia 
Tetragonolobus 
Teucrium 
Thalictrum 
Thea 
Theophrasta 
Thermopsis 
Thistle 
Thlaspi 
Thorn Apple 
Thrift 
Thrincia 
Thuja 
Thunbergia 
Thyme 
Tiarella 
Tigridia 
Tilia 
Tillandsia 
Tofieldia 
Tormentilla 


APPENDIX. BS 

Tribe or Tribe or 
Natural Order. Natural Order. 
Yam Trachelium Harebell 
Composite Tradescantia Spiderwort 
Pea Tragopogon Composite 
Fir Trapa Evening Primrose 
ditto Traveller’s Joy Crowfoot 
Vervain Trefoil : Pea 
Scabious Tree Onion Asphodel 
A Tea Trifolium Pea 
Trumpet-flower Trigonella ditto 
Vervain Trillium Colchicum 
Stonecrop Triteleia Asphodel 
Saxifrage Triticum Grass 
Protea Tritoma Asphodel 
Pea Trollius Crowfoot 
Combretum Tropeolum Nasturtium 
Pea Tulip Lily 
Mint Tulip Tree Magnolia 
Crowfoot Turnip Cruciferous 

Tea Turritis ditto 

Myrsine Tussilago Composite 
Pea Typha Bulrush 
Composite Ulex Pea 
Cruciferous Ulmus Elm 
Nightshade Urtica Nettle 
Leadwort Vaccinium Bilberry 
Composite Valantia Madder 
Fir Vallota Narcissus 
Justicia Vanda Orchis 
Mint Vangulera Coffee 
Saxifrage Vanilla Vanilla 
Cornflag Vella Cruciferous 
Linden Veltheimia : Asphodel 
Pine Apple Venus’ Fly-trap Sundew 
Colchicum Venus’ Looking-glass Harebell 
Rose Veratrum Colchicum 


Verbascum 
Verbena 
Veronica 
Vesicaria 
Vestia 

Vetch 
Viburnum 
Vicia 

Vinca 

Virgilia 
Virginian Creeper 
Virgin’s Bower 
Viscum 

Vitex 

Vitis 
Wallflower 
Water Cress 


Water Hemlock Umbelliferous 


Water Horehound 


Water Melon 
Watsonia 
Wayfaring-tree 
Welsh Onion 
Westringia 
Wheat 

White Cedar 


APPENDIX. 
Tribe or | 
Natural Order. 
Foxglove White Clover 
Vervain White Spruce 
Foxglove | Whortle Berry 
Cruciferous | Winter Aconite 
Nightshade | Winter Cherry 
p Pea Witheringia 
Honeysuckle Woodbine 
, Pea Wood Sage 
Apocynum Woodsia 
. Pea | Woodwardia 
Vine | Wormwood 
Crowfoot | Wulfenia 
Misseltoe | Xanthorhiza 
Vervain Xeranthemum 
Vine Xerophyllum 
Cruciferous Xerotes 
ditto Yew Tree 
Yucca 
Mint | Zea : 
Gourd | Zebra Plant 
Cornflag Zephyranthes 
Honeysuckle Zieria 
Asphodel Zingiber 
Mint Zinnia 
Grass Zizyphus 
ir | 


Tribe or 
Natural Order. 


Pea 

Fir 
Bilberry 
Crowfoot 
Nightshade 
ditto 
Honeysuckle 
Mint 

Fern 

ditto 
Composite 
Foxglove 
Crowfoot 
Composite 
Colchicum 
Rush 

Fir 

Lily 

Grass 
Arrow Root 
Narcissus 
Rue ° 
Ginger 
Composite 
Buckthorn 


OF THE SECOND VOLUME. 


INDEX 


THE NUMBERS REFER TO THE PAGES, 


ABORTIONS 

Aculei 

Esculus rosea 
Alaternus 

Alhagi Maurorum 
Alisma ——— 
Alkanna 

American creeper 
American Ginger 
Ampelopsis quinguefolia 
Amygdaloid - 
Anagallis 

Anagallis tenella 
Anastatica hierochuntica 
Apocynum - 
Apple-berry ° 
Ardisias 

Aristolochia Sipho 
Aristolochia trilobata 
Arrow-head 

Arum Tribe 

Arum maculatum 
Asarum canadense 
Asclepias incarnata 
Asperula odorata 
Astroloma humifusum 
Atriplex hortensis 
Auricula ; 
Australian Cranberry 


Barberry 

Bast 

Banksia 
Beechwheat 

Beet 

Begonias 

Berberis aquifolium 
Beta maritima 
Beta vulgaris 

Big Laurel 
Bignonia : 
Bignonia radicans 


Billardiera 
Birthwort * 
Black Alder 
Blitum 

Blue-bells 

Bog Pimpernel 
Bottle gourd 
Box-tree 
Brookweed 
Bryony . 
Bryonia dioica 
Buckthorn 
Buckwheat 


Cactacez 

Camel’s thorn 
Caoutchoue 

Caper tribe 
Capparidacee 
Capparis spinosa 
Cassava 

Cassia ‘ 
Casuarina 

Catalpa 

Catalpa sy ringifolia 
Ceanothus azureus 
Cephalotus 
Cereus Z 
Cereus speciosus 
Chalaza 

Chard Beet 
Cheese rennet 
Chenopodium album 
Christ’s Thorn 
Cinnamon Tribe 
Cissus 

Cistus ‘ 
Cistus purpureus 
Cleavers 

Cleome 

Cobea 


Collomia 


27 
188 
121 
147 

97 
160 

53 
124 
160 

51 

51 
118 
140 


44 
80 
182 
40 
40 
40 
124 
155 
26 
167 
167 
121 
196 
+k 
48 
19 
145 
175 
145 
118 
153 
22 
70 
71 
171 
42 
164 
165 


278 


Common Flax 
Correa 

Cowslip 

Cucumber 
Cucumber-tree 
Cucurbita lagenaria 
Cyclamen 
Cynanchum 


Daphne Cneorum 
Daphne Laureola 
Daphne Mezereum 
Devil’s-bit 
Dicecious 

Diona 

Diosma s 
Dipsacus Fullonum 
Dock 
Dracophyllum 
Dragon Arum 
Drosera rotundifolia 
Drosera 


Dyer’s weld 


Eceremocarpus scaber 
Echinocacti ; 
Echinocactus Eyriesii 
Epacris 

Epacris ruscifolia 
Epimedium 

Euphorbia 

Exocarpus cupressiformis 
Extrorsal 


Fig-Marigold 

Field Madder 

Flax A 5 
Floating Buck-bean 
Foramen 5 
Fox grapes 
Fraxinella 

French berries 


Galium A parine 
Galium verum 
Garden Rue 3 
Gaultheria 

Gilia 

Glass wort 

Gnidia - 
Gooseberry 
Goosefoot x 
Goosefoot Tribe 
Goosegrass 

Gopher plant 

Gourd Cc 
Greek Valerian Tribe 
Gynobase 


Hedge-hog thistle 


INDEX. 
136 Helianthemum 
156 Henna A 
157 Hickory : 
51 Hippomane Mancinella 
7 Horse-chesnut 
53 Hottonia 
160 Houseleek 
185 Hoya 
Hursinghar 
149 
149 Ice plant 
149 Indian Fig 
176 Indian Rubber 
52 Tpomopsis 
92 
156 Jacaranda : 
178 Jacob’s Ladder 
142 Jasmine Tribe 
161 Jasminum officinale 
192 Jatropha Manihot 
82 Jujube 
81 Juglans regia 
59 
Knotgrass 
169 
45 Lace 
50 Lagerstromia 
161 Lagetto Tree 
162 Laurus nobilis 
13 Lawsonia inermis 
125 Leiogyne granulata 
26 Leptosiphon androsaceus 
8 Leucopogon Fi 
Linum usitatissimum 
60 Liriodendron tulipifera 
175 Lissanthe sapida 
129 London Pride 
212 Love in a mist 
72 Lychnidea 
22 Lythracez 
136 Lythrum 
121 
Madder Tribe 
171 Magnolia : 
175 Magnolia auriculata 
156 Magnolia grandiflora 
26 Magnolia macrophylla 
165 Magnolia pumila 
146 Mahonia : 
149 Manchineel Z 
16 Mango : 
143 Mammillaria 
145 Manna 
171 Melocacti 
70 Melon 5 
51 Melon-thistle 
164 Mesembryanthemum 
136 Mezereum Tribe 
Mignonette 
45 Milkwort 


70 
69 
101 
124 
98 
160 
106 
185 
181 


61 
44 
124,182 
165 


168 
165 
179 
179 
124 
121 
101 


140 


152 

70 
152 
154 

70 
112 
165 


Momordica cylindrica 
Momordica Elaterium 
Monkey-cups 
Monnina polystachya 
Myricaria germanica 
Myrsinaceous 


Navel-wort 

Nepenthes 

Nerium ; 

Nigella ° 
Night-blowing Cereus 
Nuphar en 

Nyctanthes Arbor Tristis 
Ny mpheea alba 


Oleander 
Opuntia 
Orach 
Oxlip 


Paliouri Z 
Paliurus australis 
Palma Christi 
Parietal 

Parnassia 

Pereskias 

Periploca 

Periwinkle 

Persicaria - 
Philanthropist 

Phlox 

Physocalymna floribunda 
Pimpernel 4 
Pink Asclepias . 
Pistil 

Pitcher-plants 
Pittosporum 
Pittosporum Tobira 
Placenta 

Placentation 
Polemonium A 
Polygala vulgaris 
Polygonum aviculare 
Polygonum adpressum 
Polygonum Fagopyrum 
Porcupine-thistle 
Powdered Beau 
Primerose 

Primrose 


Prickles 


Raphe 

Reseda luteola 
Reseda odorata 
Rhamuus catharticus 
Rhamnus infectorius 
Rheum 

Rhodiola rosea 
Rhubarb 


INDEX. 
53 Ribes aureum 
55 Ribes aureum 
196 Ribes sanguineum 
34 Ribes speciosum 
79 Ricinus 7 2 
159 River grape 
Robertsonia umbrosa 
110 Rock rose : “ 
196 Rose of Jericho 
186 Rose-wood 
8 Rose-wort 
50 Rubia tinctorum c 
212 Rue 5 A 5 
181 Rue Tribe 
210 Rumex , e 
Russia Mats i 3 
186 Ruta graveolens 
44 
143 Sagittaria sagittifolia 
157 Salicariez 
Salicornia 
118 Salsola Kali 
118 Saltwort 
124 Samolus V alacant 
39 Samphire 
114 Sarracenia 
44. Saxifrage 
185 Saxifraga tridactylites 
186 Scabiosa atropurpurea 
142 _ Seabious Tribe . C 
172 Scabiosa succisa ‘ 
164 Sea Beet ‘ 
76 Sedum . 
160 Sempervivum tectorum 
182 Sherardia arvensis : 
16 Side-saddle Flower é 
196 Slender-tube 
27 Snake Cucumber 
29 Sollya 
59 Sorrel u 
39 Sowbread é 5 
165 Spadix 
50 Spathe 
140 Spinacia oleracea ‘ 
26 Spinach - 
142 Spines 
45 Spirting Cucumber 
157 Spurge Laurel 
157 Spurges 
157 Squash : 
123 Stapelia . 
Starry Scabious 5 
19 Stoneer op 
39 Strawberry bhite’ 
56 Struthiola 
121 Styphelia 
121 Sundew 
142 Sweet Bay 


Sweet Scabious 


280 


Talauma 

Tamarisk 
Tamarix gallica 

Tapioca 

Teasel 

Tillea ; ss 
Tobira Tree F a 
Torch-thistle 

Trailing Cneorum 

Tree of Mourning 
Trumpet-flower 

Tsjampaca : 
Tulip-tree . 

‘ Ow { Vu ef 
Van Diemen’s Island Currant 
Vegetable Marrow 
Venus’ Fly-trap 
Villarsia nymphzoides 
Vinea 
Vine a 
Vitis odoratissima 
Vitis riparia 


NORMAN AND SKEEN, PRINTERS, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT GARDEN. 


INDEX. 
7 Vitis labrusea 
78 
Che) Umbilicus pendulinus 
124 Umbrella-tree 
178 Unlining 2 
111 
29 Water Lily : 
44 Water Melon ; 
149 Water-Plantain Tribe 
181 Walnut Tribe 
167 Water Violet 
8 White beard 
10 White Jasmine 
74 Whiptongue 
163 Woodruff 
51 
92 Xylomelum pyriforme 
912 
186 Yallhoy 
20 
22 Zizyphus Jujuba 
29 
THE END. 


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